Kyiv Verses

 Kyiv verses


These lines are written 

With the finish still unknown

To this Russian war from hell

Unleashed by the mad Putin. 


We thought for years that wars

Were prisoners of the history books

Film titles long enshrined

In the concrete of the mind. 


Yes we heard of foreign battles

Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan

But they were over ‘there’

Outside our conscious zone. 


The big battles were all fought

All soldiers dead, fifty years ago

The heroes of war movies 

Not the here and now. 


We fought our battles on the screens

With popcorn in our armchairs

Not in blood in army trenches

Not with people we recognized. 


Now it’s real, now it’s human

Now it’s close and personal

The West is fighting hard

With fair Ukraine as cover. 


There is the chance of a mistake

A careless lighter finds the grass

A conflagration that consumes us all

The dice is thrown, the ball’s in play. 


This war has shown us that the stakes

Rise higher all the time

Our colors lie nailed to the mast

To achieve a peace that lasts. 

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