A POET FILTERED IN MANHUSH

“‘Orcs’ told me:

‘You can eat your passport.

It doesn’t matter.

This matters.’”

 

A filtration slip saying.

He was fingerprinted at Manhush.

A village about 20km west.

Of Mariupol, on 13 May.

 

 

A 33-year-old says.

Those who paid could go through the process faster.

He had gone through filtration.

When he lived outside Mariupol;

 

He and his family slept on folding cots.

In the basement of a school.

For six weeks.

Until their turn for filtration came.

 

Conditions he called “luxury”.

Compared to what others had to endure.

“We had water.

We had flour, eggs, food.”

 

“But we had no idea how long.

We’d be there, in the school.

So we had to stay hungry.

We ate one meal a day.”

 

When his turn for filtration came.

They queued at a command post.

For 14 hours.

Until ‘orcs’ forces finally interviewed him.

 

Earlier that week he had fallen from his bike.

And bruised his knees.

Something the interviewers found suspicious.

Thinking he may have been a soldier.

 

They stripped him.

And checked for tattoos and marks.

On his shoulder.

Where a rifle butt may have made bruises.

 

But he was able to pass the process quickly.

Despite all the waiting.

He was fingerprinted and given an official slip.

Showing he had gone through filtration.

 

 

“‘Orcs’ told me:

‘You can eat your passport.

It doesn’t matter.

This matters.’”

 

A filtration slip saying.

He was fingerprinted at Manhush.

A village about 20km west.

Of Mariupol, on 13 May.

 

 

On 18 May he was.

In a Ford Transit van to escape.

With his friend’s family.

Going from Mariupol to Berdyansk.

 

On 24 May from Berdyansk.

It took the group three days.

To travel to Georgia.

Through occupied Crimea and ‘Mordor’.

 

 

*Because I read some articles about filtration as follows, 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 Dmytro.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:

Ukraine war: Families risking all to escape through Russia to Georgia – BBC News