A POET IN A SHATTERED EMPIRE

A frigid wind whistles across.

Hundreds of miles of open farmland.

And a watery winter sun pokes.

Through the clouds.

 

The sprawling facility.

With its maze of pylons.

Cables and imposing machinery.

Feels remote and impersonal.

 

But around 15 million ‘elves’.

Depend on it for power.

It’s been hit six times.

With missiles and drones.

 

 

The manager surveys.

His shattered empire.

He’s worked here.

For decades.

 

“We knew it would happen.

Sooner or later,” he says.

Repairing the damage.

Will take years.

 

 

Two of the devastated.

Transformers are among.

The largest in the world.

Weighing more than 300 tonnes.

 

The specialised steel innards.

Of one of them have been torn out.

And lie folded on the ground.

Like the leaves of a clumsily discarded book.

 

He points out the gaping hole.

In the administration building.

Where a bookcase and dangling light bulb.

Are pretty much all that’s left of his office.

 

He watched the destruction from 500m away.

As a “kamikaze” drone tore into the building.

Wrecking the control room.

And taking the substation offline.

 

 

The manager surveys.

His shattered empire.

He’s worked here.

For decades.

 

“We knew it would happen.

Sooner or later,” he says.

Repairing the damage.

Will take years.

 

 

“They know perfectly well why.

This facility is important for Ukraine.

That’s why they decided.

To destroy it.”

 

He is a man of few words.

He feels “hate” all the time.

“Hate towards those.

Who came to kill my people.”

 

 

*Because I read “Ukraine grid attacks: Engineers race to restore electricity supplies” by Paul Adams on 3 Feb 2023, 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, including a story of Serhiy.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:

Ukraine grid attacks: Engineers race to restore electricity supplies – BBC News

 

 

**My friend shows you this poem with other my poems together also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!

Kurama (Japan). Five poems about the work of Ukrainian electricians after massive attacks on Ukraine’s power grid – Мала Сторінка (storinka.org)

Please join them!