Split Sides

Brave New World (Magazine Entry #1)

#Poetry #Ukraine #ColdWar2

It's 20 minutes after 8 in the evening

And everyone is readying themselves

For another wretched night of fragile safety.

Air raid sirens bellow throughout Kyiv and Kharkiv and all over Ukraine

As the ceaseless roar of rockets and missiles

Dart throughout the merciless winter night.

The huddled masses of the poor, desperate townsfolk

Seek any form of rudimentary shelter they can find

Deep within basements and car parks and subway stations,

Any place where they can hide from the relentless

Artillery and mortar and gunfire up above their heads.

Men, women, children, and their pets gather round

In whatever tight confines they can sleep and distract themselves with

Keeping a brave face and a smidgen of hope in their hearts and minds

As they hope for whatever sliver of mercy can be found

Within the hearts of the invading hordes surrounding them.

Their amateur but valiant defenders and saviors stand watch

Aiming their rifles and grenades and anti-aircraft guns on the marauders

Most of whom used to be friends and family

Now being forced to shed blood and battle

Brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor

All for the rabid depredations and the archaic fantasies

Of Tsar Vladimir and his sycophantic criminal court,

So endless is their rapacity and fear over his designs

That defy all rational logic as to be blindingly suicidal

That he might just bring the planet down with him.

Every generation, every belief, every identity all unite in one burning drive

To save their motherland, their lives, and their futures

With some help from allies and strangers alike throughout the world

To stop the scheming designs of a bitter old man

Who could never live with the fact

That some legacies aren't worth saving

And some traditions are worth pissing on.