‘Orcs’ tortured the land.
‘Orcs’ tortured, but he’s back to.
‘Orcs’ tortured the land.
Sitting on a hospital bed in Zaporizhzhya.
Over a terrifying journey to ‘Mordor’ and back.
With the bandage where his toes used to be.
“It still hurts. The wounds are still fresh.”
Hiding in a cold, damp cellar under the garden.
They called each other father and son.
‘Orcs’ were going along house to house.
‘Orcs’ pulled father and son out and beat.
‘Orcs’ were shooting people, and tortured terrifyingly.
Wives of both had no idea where their husbands were.
Blindfolded. “Where is my father?”
“What if he’s not with me anymore?” Father’s voice came back.
Shells started falling close to father and son.
“Saying goodbye to our lives over and over again.”
Hauled up from the ground. Loaded onto trucks.
Loaded onto helicopters. Blindfolded.
Hunger was setting in. Transferred onto a cargo plane.
“Are you OK?” son said aloud, over the sound of the engines.
Three grim weeks in a prison in ‘Mordor’.
Where son had last seen his toes and father.
From a small village, Andriivka, west of Kyiv.
Over a terrifying journey to ‘Mordor’ and back.
“Welcome back buddy.” in his ‘elves’ language.
One of the soldiers looked him in the eyes and said.
His heart was pounding in his chest, waiting for the dialling sound.
“I just heard my wife say hello and couldn’t take a breath.”
After a long ambulance journey across his country.
A hero’s welcome from his colleagues at the hospital in Kyiv.
Showing off his progress by standing and taking a few steps.
“I have only one thing on my mind. Going to my wife and son.”
‘Orcs’ tortured the land.
‘Orcs’ tortured, but he’s back to.
‘Orcs’ tortured the land.
In the village at his family’s home, his father’s father said.
“Everyone here is going through their own grief.”
Still missing a big piece, his father’s mother said.
“So, we are still here waiting and hoping for.”
‘Orcs’ tortured the land.
‘Orcs’ tortured, but he’s back to.
‘Orcs’ tortured the land.
*Because I read “A Ukrainian father’s terrifying journey to a Russian prison and back” by Joel Gunter in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 29 April 2022, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 April 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Nikita and his father Sasha and their family.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
A Ukrainian father’s terrifying journey to a Russian prison and back – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Kurama (Japan). «A poet back from ‘mordor’» – Мала Сторінка (storinka.org)
Please join them!
