Tag: Ukraine

This Time, Ukraine

By Mercedes Lawry

 

Beneath the ground
a green thunder, roots
weave among limbs
of the fallen, so war
digs and swallows
and the birds still etch
the smoking sky.
Prayers falter, disappear.
How do we watch from afar,
our fingers twitching, our thoughts
but ashes? Hopeless it seems
as the rusty wheel of history
creaks on, repeat, repeat.

 

Mercedes Lawry is the author of three chapbooks. The most recent, In the Early Garden with Reason, was selected by Molly Peacock for the 2018 WaterSedge Chapbook Contest. Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Poetry, Nimrod, and Prairie Schooner, and she’s been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. Her book, Vestiges, was just released by Kelsay Books. Her collection Small Measures will be published in 2024.

Photo credit: KenC1983 via a Creative Commons license.

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Feeding Stray Cats in Ukraine

By Rebecca K. Leet

 

As molecules of steel madness
concussed the air
and no next breath was sure

a vibration in his unbowed soul
prompted Sasha to step outside
and feed a posse of stray cats.

The offering –
from one displaced in the world
to others also beggared –
cost Sasha his right foot.

War presents, at times,
a tableau for tenderness –
often anonymous, usually unseen.

It always presents
a canvas for cruelty – unfathomable

yet undaunting
to the merciful who step outside
to succor the world.

 

Rebecca K. Leet has spent a lifetime across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, seeing the best of times and the worst. Writing poetry keeps her sane.

Photo credit: Yael Beeri via a Creative Commons license.

Editor’s note: Paws of War is helping to care for abandoned pets in Ukraine. The nonprofit has received a 4 of 4 stars rating on Charity Navigator, so it’s safe to assume your contribution will be well-spent.

On Hearing of Russian Soldiers Booby-Trapping Dead Ukrainian Civilians with Land Mines

By Karen Kilcup

 

How do they do it—
lift a heavy head
and place the bomb
beneath an ear? Slide
the metal disc under
a shoulder or thigh?
Or worse: do they slice
the swollen
long-dead chest, flies
fluttering, the stink
unbearable, nearly?
Do they carve
a red-rimmed cavity
large enough to implant
the device, which mimics
a hockey puck, a nippled breast?
How could they tuck it in?
How could they close the
hole, back away,
hope for the best?

 

A teacher and writer for more than forty years, Karen Kilcup is the Elizabeth Rosenthal Professor of American Literature, Environmental & Sustainability Studies, and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at UNC Greensboro. She feels fortunate to work with many students of color, first-generation students, and LGBTQI+ students at this Minority-Serving Institution. Their courage and imagination inspire her and give her hope. Her forthcoming book, winner of the 2021 Winter Goose Poetry Prize, is titled The Art of Restoration.

Photo credit: Chi Wai Un via a Creative Commons license.

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Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.

 

Oratorio of Arrival

By Dia Calhoun

for Ukraine, 2022

 

Because the woman hugs a green glass bottle
yellow-wicked, and waits
by the fabric store where she once bought
the blue wool for her coat,
the scarlet gingham for the kitchen window,
coral flannel to snuggle her baby
somewhere now on the pouring road to Poland—

Veni Magna Spirita

Because the composer holds his index finger,
limber from years of black piano keys,
on the trigger of an AK-47,
a melody in B minor playing in his head—

Veni Magna Spirita

Because the music is louder, the blue brighter
than the tanks now grinding down the street—

Veni Magna Spirita

Because their eyes meet
because she lights the torch
because he pulls the trigger
singing his greatest opus—Fuck you, bastard!
because she runs out, blue coat whirling,
and throws—

Veni Magna Spirita 

Crossing a different border, their baby looks up.

 

Dia Calhoun is the author of seven young adult novels, including two verse novels, After the River the Sun and Eva of the Farm (Atheneum, 2013, 2012). She won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. Her poems have appeared in The EcoTheo Review and MORIA Literary Magazine. An article on poetry craft, co-authored with Deborah Bacharach, is forthcoming in the Writer’s Chronicle. Calhoun is a co-founder of readergirlz, recipient of The National Book Foundation Innovations in Reading Prize. She has taught at Seattle University, Stony Brook University, and The Cornish College. Learn more at diacalhoun.com.

Image credits: The compilation is by our own Debbie Hall, poetry editor and author, and the flag image is by Nataliya Smirnova on Unsplash.

A note from Writers Resist

Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.