On Tuesday.
A hospital maternity ward was shelled.
No-one was hurt but.
It has further escalated fear among people.
Kherson is a city haunted by.
Relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
The city was liberated.
On 11 November.
A thirteen-year-old made.
A heart shape with both her hands.
Waving goodbye to.
Her best friend.
Who was pressed up against the glass partition.
That divided the entrance hall.
Of Kherson’s train station.
From the waiting area.
Moments earlier, they’d hugged.
Tears welling up in their eyes.
The girls didn’t know when.
They might see each other again.
Her best friend had kissed.
A tan dachshund dog.
That wrapped up in a warm blanket.
Carried by her in her arms.
Her family was leaving Kherson.
The past few days in the city.
Had simply been too much.
For her mother.
Not sure of where.
They would end up eventually.
For now, they were heading to.
The western city of Khmelnytskyi.
“Before, ‘orcs’ forces shelled us.
Seven to 10 times a day.
Now it’s 70-80 times.
All day long,” her mother said.
“It’s too scary.
I love Ukraine.
And my dear city.
But we have to go.”
Mother and her three daughters are.
Among more than 400 people.
Who have left Kherson.
Since Christmas Day.
After a sharp increase.
In the intensity of.
The bombardment of the city.
By the ‘orcs’ military.
On Tuesday.
A hospital maternity ward was shelled.
No-one was hurt but.
It has further escalated fear among people.
Kherson is a city haunted by.
Relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
The city was liberated.
On 11 November.
She was in tears.
In her car.
“We can’t take it anymore.
The shelling is so intense.”
“We stayed this whole time and thought.
It would pass and that we would be lucky.
But a strike hit the house next to ours.
And my father’s home was also shelled.”
She planned to travel.
To Kryvyi Rih.
A city in central Ukraine.
Where she has family.
Hundreds of people are leaving on their own.
A queue of cars building up.
At the checkpoint leading out of Kherson.
Filled with terrified civilians.
On Tuesday.
A hospital maternity ward was shelled.
No-one was hurt but.
It has further escalated fear among people.
Kherson is a city haunted by.
Relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
The city was liberated.
On 11 November.
Here in the city.
There’s barely ever a break.
From the constant sound.
Of mortar shell attacks.
A 56-year-old was killed.
When he was asleep.
His home collapsed on him.
After a shell hit it.
The day after he died.
His mother, 82, came.
To search for his passport.
In the rubble.
She needed the document to get his body.
Released from the morgue.
“I must have had a sense that.
Something would go wrong that day.”
“Because I spoke to him over the phone.
And urged him to leave the house.
He didn’t and that was it.
Our lives have been ruined,” she wept.
There were more loud explosions.
The elderly mother’s lone pursuit.
To give her son a dignified farewell.
Is a dangerous one.
Because no part of Kherson is safe.
Surviving here whether.
Out in a street or inside a home.
Is a matter of chance.
On Tuesday.
A hospital maternity ward was shelled.
No-one was hurt but.
It has further escalated fear among people.
Kherson is a city haunted by.
Relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
The city was liberated.
On 11 November.
39-year-old Red Cross volunteer.
Was killed in a mortar shell explosion.
Just outside the organisation’s base in Kherson.
A few feet away from safety.
Her mother showed the medal.
Of honour she was given.
“I’m very happy she helped a lot of people.
She was so kind.”
“But it’s also painful for me.
I must recover and raise her two children.
I tell them they should be proud of.
Their mother because she is a hero.”
She had been living.
In the underground shelter.
Of the Red Cross with her two children.
17-year-old and 12-year-old.
They continue to live there.
Feeling comfort and protection.
Amidst a group of volunteers.
Who’ve become family.
“When someone so close dies.
It is difficult.
But if we give up and stop.
Then her death would have been in vain.”
“We work to make sure people live.
Everything else is secondary.”
He is her friend.
And another volunteer.
But it’s hard to do that.
Knowing your own family.
Could be in danger.
Every minute.
When a few moments later.
More bombs go off.
He paces up and down.
Trying to call his wife.
“They don’t want to leave.
They worry about me.
And I worry about them.
That’s how we live,” he said.
“What makes me most angry is that.
‘Orcs’ forces always hit.
Civilian infrastructure.
Houses, apartment blocks, boiler rooms.”
“It’s impossible to understand.
The logic behind these attacks.”
Tension visible on his face.
He has two children.
On Tuesday.
A hospital maternity ward was shelled.
No-one was hurt but.
It has further escalated fear among people.
Kherson is a city haunted by.
Relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
The city was liberated.
On 11 November.
“We almost never have.
Power or water.
It comes briefly sometimes.
And is gone again because of shelling.”
“It’s very scary at night.
We still have gas though.
And are able to stay warm.”
One resident said.
Tens of thousands of civilians.
Are still living in Kherson.
But at least twice this week.
The regional administration has urged them to leave.
Just last month in Kherson.
There had been jubilant scenes.
Taken by ‘orcs’ forces.
On the second day of the invasion.
Close to the spot.
Where masses had gathered.
Waving ‘elves’ flags to celebrate.
Being freed from ‘orcs’ control.
Although the city was liberated.
On 11 November.
A mortar attack on Christmas Eve.
Left eleven dead, and dozens injured.
Among the dead were a social worker.
A butcher and a woman selling mobile Sim cards.
Ordinary people working at.
Or visiting the city’s central market.
That day, Kherson was hit.
By mortars 41 times.
‘Orcs’ are firing from the left bank of.
The Dnipro river where they withdrew to;
The waterway has become.
A de facto frontline in the south of Ukraine.
Kherson is a strategically important region.
Often called the gateway to Crimea.
It’s hard to see what.
‘Mordor’ hopes to gain from.
The pounding of Kherson.
In addition to mortar shells.
Incendiary munitions being used.
Fiery sparks raining down.
On the city.
Intended to set fire to targets.
It’s also unclear if.
The ‘elves’ military is attempting to.
Take back control of areas.
On the left bank of the river.
On Tuesday.
A hospital maternity ward was shelled.
No-one was hurt but.
It has further escalated fear among people.
Kherson is a city haunted by.
Relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
The city was liberated.
On 11 November.
*Because I read “Ukraine war: Civilians flee Kherson as Russian attacks intensify” by Yogita Limaye on 28 Dec 2022, 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 Nika and her best friend Inna and her mother Elena, a story of Iryna, a story of Serhii and his mother Tamara, a story of Viktoria and her mother Liudmyla and her friend Dmitro, and a story of Larysa.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Civilians flee Kherson as Russian attacks intensify – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Kurama (Japan). «Poets haunted» — a poem about war in Ukraine 2022 – Мала Сторінка (storinka.org)
Please join them!
