Nothing’s fair in love and war – A Ukraine Poem
IRPIN, UKRAINE – MARCH 07: Residents of Irpin flee heavy fighting via a destroyed bridge as Russian forces entered the city on March 07, 2022 in Irpin, Ukraine. Yesterday, four civilians were killed by mortar fire along the road leading from Irpin to Kyiv, which has been a key evacuation route for people fleeing Russian forces advancing from the north. Today, Ukraine rejected as “unacceptable” a Russian proposal for a humanitarian corridor that leads from Kyiv to Belarus, a Russian ally that was a staging ground for the invasion. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
March 9, 2022
Why must they sleep in the hall fully dressed, scared
Filled with terror and ready to run from home
At any minute because of a war that
Has no purpose but a man’s want for power
That they run from their home to city so far
With very few things in their very small car
They sit and they stare in the traffic so long
They sit and they stare at the joke gone too far
They sit and they stare at their home so long gone
The most restless of nights and day just as long
Adrenaline driven until it is gone
The cat and the dog in the very small car
With a bus with family so far beyond
And the city so far is finally here
All they want is the life of ten days before
But nobody knows what life is in a war
They do not know what their life is anymore
And here I am, my own small car, across seas
Safe and sound, with restless nights, and here I am
Trying to memorize the cracks in the wall
Trying to remember each stone in the road
Every. Single. Thing
Because no one knows what tomorrow will bring
Who’s safe then, or even who is safe now.
Julie • Mar 11, 2022 at 11:09 pm
Thank you for sharing this poem, Maya. <3