Soldiers, of course.
Have the advantage.
Of armour.
Civilians do not.
And around Kupiansk.
The city ‘elves’ recaptured last September.
‘Orcs’ guns are again.
Shelling people’s homes.
Helping get people to safety is.
A volunteer with the charity “I am Saved”.
The words are written across his T-shirt.
And have a double meaning.
The group is made up.
Of recovering addicts.
Who drive their three battered vans.
To villages in danger.
Since the war’s start.
They say they have saved.
Some 17,000 people.
Since the war’s start.
They’d brought out 300 people.
In the previous couple of days.
“We continue to take kids away.
“The priority for evacuation is kids.”
Soldiers, of course.
Have the advantage.
Of armour.
Civilians do not.
And around Kupiansk.
The city ‘elves’ recaptured last September.
‘Orcs’ guns are again.
Shelling people’s homes.
In the back of one van.
Is a five-month-old.
Cradled in the arms of her mother.
Their neighbourhood was shelled that morning.
“It’s very scary to live here.
I need to leave.
In order to safeguard my children.”
Kissing her baby’s head as she slept.
Beside them in the now-packed van.
Is her grandfather.
“We counted 36 craters.
In the morning here.”
“We counted 36 craters.
In the morning here.
After two incomings…
A horrifying scene,” he said.
“I was sitting on the bed.
Drinking coffee and suddenly.
Ended up under the table.
The blast wave threw me off the bed.”
Soldiers, of course.
Have the advantage.
Of armour.
Civilians do not.
And around Kupiansk.
The city ‘elves’ recaptured last September.
‘Orcs’ guns are again.
Shelling people’s homes.
The people around here.
Already lived under ‘orcs’ occupation.
For six months.
And many do not want to repeat it.
She, 72, says.
She’ll risk staying for now.
“If only ‘elves’ soldiers.
Could chase them away.”
“Yesterday a bomb went off.
We thought it sounded.
Like an aeroplane.
But then there was a bang.”
“If only ‘elves’ soldiers.
Could chase them away.
But here they keep creeping.
And creeping and creeping.”
Along the front.
Stretching from Lyman to Kupiansk.
‘Orcs’ gains don’t amount.
To much – yet.
But for her and her neighbours.
They mean everything.
A repeat of war’s tragedy, that again.
Ends in the separation of ‘elves’ families.
Soldiers, of course.
Have the advantage.
Of armour.
Civilians do not.
And around Kupiansk.
The city ‘elves’ recaptured last September.
‘Orcs’ guns are again.
Shelling people’s homes.
*Because I read “Russia’s kamikaze drones raining down on Ukraine’s east” on 30 Aug 2023, 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 Artur, Sofiia, Tetiana and her father, and a story of Antonina.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Russia’s kamikaze drones raining down on Ukraine’s east – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem and another on the Ukrainian website together for their children and others!
Please join them!
