Twins Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Twins are Gemini: Castor and Pollux
Apollo and Artemis (Sky God, Moon Goddess)
Geb and Nut, were Egypt's Earth and Sky
Romulus and Remus, Yama and Yami

In Ireland, Holly King, Oak King
Waxed and waned with the Seasons
In Bulgaria, the mother of twins
Could protect from disease and demons,
Could bring down the moon and milk her

Professor Arnold Klopper, reproduction specialist
Son of an Afrikaner policeman went with his father
On rounds in rural areas, witnessing illness and poverty.
Graduated, anti-racist, joined the NHS
Loved the Scottish countryside, a good debate, a dram.

I was one of his patients, my system
Coaxed by pioneering medicine
Research science used to good effect
I brought forth twins, a healthy boy and girl

Vera Kreigal & her twin Olga
Five years old, were packed into cattle trucks
Where the dead lay down like paving stones
Raw materials for SS Captain Josef Mengele
They said his lab had photographs of eyes
Like butterflies pinned in a case
Like stamps, franked, stuck in a book

732 pairs of twins, their organs harvested
Without the kindness of anaesthesia
Or killed with an injection to the heart