“When we finally escaped and saw.
The ‘elves’ fighters and the flag.
When we heard ‘elves’ language.
Everyone in the bus started to cry.”
“The city does not exist anymore.
Even walls.
Just huge piles of ruins.
I could never have imagined such violence.”
They managed to flee Mariupol last week.
Arriving in Lviv, they were boarding a coach.
To a smaller city in western Ukraine.
Desperate for safety after their ordeal.
They survived by sheltering in a basement.
Living of tinned goods.
A handful of potatoes they grew in their garden.
And water taken from the boiler.
The filtration process was speedy for them.
Perhaps because of their age.
And because her husband has a disability.
But it was far worse for younger people.
She says, “‘Orcs’ divide people into groups.
Those who were suspected of having connections.
With ‘elves’ army, territorial defence.
Journalists, workers from the government.”
“The filtration camps are like ghettos.”
“It’s very dangerous for them.
They take those people to prisons.
To Donetsk, torture them.”
Many were sent from the filtration camps to ‘Mordor’.
Sometimes people were told they were destined.
For ‘elves’-controlled territory.
Only for the coach to head to ‘orcs’-held territory instead.
She says it was only because of their driver.
That they managed to escape.
“It was just unbelievable that.
We stayed alive and finally fled from hell.”
“When we finally escaped and saw.
The ‘elves’ fighters and the flag.
When we heard ‘elves’ language.
Everyone in the bus started to cry.”
“The city does not exist anymore.
Even walls.
Just huge piles of ruins.
I could never have imagined such violence.”
*Because I read “‘You can’t imagine the conditions’ – Accounts emerge of Russian detention camps” on 25 Apr 2022, on the BBC News, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Valentyna and her husband Evgeniy.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
‘You can’t imagine the conditions’ – Accounts emerge of Russian detention camps – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem and three other my poems together about filtration on the BBC news also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!
