At one police station.
In recently liberated Kherson.
Each cell tells.
Its own story.
Some have clothes strewn everywhere.
One has a burnt-out bed.
Another has dog bowls.
And rubbish strewn everywhere.
In one, an ‘orcs’ flag lies.
In the centre of the floor.
In cell number six is.
Her story.
It was here she spent 31 days.
With four other women.
After being captured.
By ‘orcs’ soldiers in June.
Before the invasion of Ukraine in February.
She, 49-year-old.
Was a TV presenter.
On a Telethon channel.
By early March.
Armoured ‘orcs’ convoys were.
Entering her home city.
Of Kherson.
As ‘orcs’ grip tightened.
Around the regional capital.
Demonstrations were gradually crushed.
And freedoms were eroded.
In June, armed men entered her home.
Separated her from her boyfriend.
Put a bag over her head.
And loaded her on to a bus.
It was from there.
She was taken to cell number six.
“On the third floor.
Men were beaten,” she recalls.
“When the person is being tortured with electricity.
You hear it.
It is a peculiar sound.
Men were screaming in pain.”
At one police station.
In recently liberated Kherson.
Each cell tells.
Its own story.
Some have clothes strewn everywhere.
One has a burnt-out bed.
Another has dog bowls.
And rubbish strewn everywhere.
In one, an ‘orcs’ flag lies.
In the centre of the floor.
In cell number six is.
Her story.
She calmly describes.
Being psychologically tortured.
For more than a month.
She often saw bodies.
Wrapped in plastic.
Taken out after.
“Interrogations went too far”.
Then she draws breath.
“There are some triggers.
When they opened the gates.
They made a specific sound it meant.
More people were arriving to be interrogated.”
She couldn’t fall asleep.
Because the lights were always on.
Once released, she found she couldn’t.
Go to bed in the dark.
At one police station.
In recently liberated Kherson.
Each cell tells.
Its own story.
Some have clothes strewn everywhere.
One has a burnt-out bed.
Another has dog bowls.
And rubbish strewn everywhere.
In one, an ‘orcs’ flag lies.
In the centre of the floor.
In cell number six is.
Her story.
What she didn’t know was that.
Her boyfriend, 69.
Was being held.
At the police station too.
He shared a room with 15 other men.
Who he claims were relentlessly.
Beaten and tortured.
Some were electrocuted.
“It’s horrible,” he remembers.
“One guy who was brought to the cell.
After his interrogation.
Came back with a black tongue.”
“It was so swollen.
It couldn’t go back in his mouth.”
He shared painkillers.
With his cell mates.
Temperatures often.
Reached 40C.
And they were made to learn.
The ‘orcs’ national anthem.
“One man was so bruised.
He was almost fully blue.
From his head to his legs.
It took him eight days to be able to stand up.”
Investigators say prisoners were often.
Forced to confess to being.
An ‘elf’ collaborator.
To be freed.
In his case, he had to.
Appear on ‘Mordor’’s state TV.
Now he and his girlfriend live in Kyiv.
And have no plans to return to Kherson.
At one police station.
In recently liberated Kherson.
Each cell tells.
Its own story.
Some have clothes strewn everywhere.
One has a burnt-out bed.
Another has dog bowls.
And rubbish strewn everywhere.
In one, an ‘orcs’ flag lies.
In the centre of the floor.
In cell number six is.
Her story.
In liberated Kherson.
The damage isn’t so much structural.
Instead a place where everyone has.
A tale of vivid struggle.
The bodies of 63 civilians.
Bearing signs of torture.
Have found near.
The recently liberated city of Kherson.
After ‘orcs’ took Kherson.
Investigators say they rounded up people.
With connections to the ‘elves’ military.
Or partisans who’d protested against their occupation.
Police seized parts of rubber batons.
A wooden club, an electrocution device.
An incandescent light bulb.
And bullets in the walls.
11 illegal prisons and.
Four torture chambers in Kherson.
More than 700 people.
Have been reported as missing.
It’s feared they are either dead.
Or have been illegally taken to.
‘Orcs’-occupied territories.
Or ‘Mordor’ itself.
*Because I read “Ukraine war: Bodies found amid reports of Russian atrocities in Kherson” by James Waterhouse on 17 Nov 2022, “More evidence of torture found in Kherson – Ukrainian officials” on 21 Nov 2022 of “Ukraine war latest”, 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 Anzhela and Oleksandr.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Bodies found amid reports of Russian atrocities in Kherson – BBC News
Ukraine war latest: UN to inspect Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem with another my poem together 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!
