Spring for Ukraine

Spring for Ukraine

a grandmother carries her old dog into exile

a man puts on a heavy mantle of leadership

13 Davids stand up to a Goliath warship

a pianist plays a last song amidst the rubble

a farmer pulls a tank away from a battle scene

mothers carry their children into a foreign country

fathers cry as they put their families on trains

a little girl stands and sings to refugees in a basement

a convoy of enemy tanks, forty miles long, halted

a pregnant mother and baby die when a bomb hits

teenagers with skateboard kneepads march off to war

a BMW convertible, machine gun mounted,

driver sitting at the ready,

Mariupol: 400,000 children, women, men,

no food, no water, no electricity.

I awake to an almost spring day in a warm bed,

gratitude spreads like the morning light

momentarily softening the horror

that we're

doing

this

again.

-- joyce wycoff

.