‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Delivering food and medicine to her and her neighbours.
Her son had just arrived. But ‘orcs’ were a few feet away.
In the town of Makhariv, west of Kyiv.
On her car ‘orcs’ sprayed painting ‘V’ and noticed him.
She kneeled on the ground by her front door.
Pressing her hands together in a prayer.
Then she raised herself up on her cane.
“Please do not take my son.” Her prayer she spoke aloud.
But ‘orcs’ pushed him into the driver’s seat of her car.
‘Orcs’ pointed a gun at him. He looked straight ahead.
Her son drove away and out of her life.
‘Orcs’ took him away. And he vanished.
Mother, daughter and grandson sat in the dark.
Bullet holes in the walls. Broken glass on the floors.
A mortar shell had come through the roof. Two others in the garden.
Spraying shrapnel through the house. Still no power in the town.
“My soul aches,” his wife said.
“Not just for my husband, for everyone.”
She was full of worry that there was something not done right.
But there were bullet holes in her car windshield.
All she could find was some passport pictures.
With them and his passport, she got a lift to Bucha.
Her husband drove away and out of her life.
‘Orcs’ took him away. And he vanished.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
At last, her phone rang. Her husband had been identified.
Alive among the hostages in ‘Mordor’.
When she might see him again? Through her tears.
“He will come back to us. I can wait.”
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
*Because I read “In Ukrainian villages, a desperate wait for news of the missing” by Joel Gunter in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 3 May 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 Vira and her daughter Olena and their family.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
In Ukrainian villages, a desperate wait for news of the missing – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!
