He lights two candles.
One is for his daughter.
The other is for her daughter.
Both were killed by an ‘orcs’ shell in Mariupol.
Every day in Vinnytsia.
At the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.
Stunningly ornate.
‘My dear girls, time will come when we meet.’
“I come here.
And I talk to them.
I stand around a bit, cry.
And it gives me relief.” in a quiet, reflective garden.
“This is a house of God.
And I find solace here.
And I keep telling them.
‘My dear girls, time will come when we meet.’”
Three months ago in Zaporizhzhia.
He was inconsolable.
With grief over the loss of both.
But trying to stay strong for his surviving daughter.
He couldn’t hide his pain.
“God, why would you bring all this upon me?
I failed to protect you.
I was not supposed to bury my children, my lovely girls.”
But his miraculous girl.
To Germany for the complicated surgery.
The attack left shrapnel in her brain.
Damaging much of the right side of her body.
“I miss my dance classes.
I want to dance again so much.”
She was a talented dancer.
Before the war she travelled all over Europe competing.
As the only surviving child.
A clear bond between father and daughter.
She needs her beloved dad by her side.
With her still in a bad way, this bereaved family needs to be together.
“It does help.
It brings some relief.
Sometimes we talk, and it’s comforting.”
Says her mother about coping with the loss of a child and grandchild.
“For us, they didn’t die.
As if they stayed in a different city.
As if they stayed in a different country.”
And her daughter is due to undergo another brain operation.
“I need to go to Germany to support them.
For the sake of my daughter.
For the sake of my wife.
Even for the sake of my deceased children.”
As a man of fighting age.
He lobbied the President directly.
His prayers were quite literally answered.
He received permission to be by his seriously ill daughter’s side.
He lights two candles.
One is for his daughter.
The other is for her daughter.
‘My dear girls, time will come when we meet.’
*Because I read “The family separated by war in both life and death” by Wyre Davies, in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, on 20 June 2022, “In Mariupol, children bear the brunt of Vladimir Putin’s war” by Wyre Davies, Zaporizhzhia on 20 March 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 Vladimir and his family – his daughter Natasha, her daughter (his granddaughter) Dominica, his second daughter Diana, and his wife Victoria.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
The family separated by war in both life and death – BBC News
In Mariupol, children bear the brunt of Vladimir Putin’s war – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Kurama (Japan). «Poets separated» — a poem about war in Ukraine 2022 – Мала Сторінка (storinka.org)
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