A POET COMING BACK

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

Comforted.

He lost consciousness again.

It was a pattern.

That lasted weeks.

 

The severely injured ‘elf’ soldier.

Would wake up to darkness and panic.

Unable to communicate.

Because of the tube down his throat.

 

But every time.

He heard his wife.

He settled down.

“That’s what kept me fighting.”

 

“Until then, I only had nightmares.

Terrible dreams in which.

I was being demolished.

Destroyed, chewed over.”

 

“And then the light.

In regaining consciousness.

Was her voice…

Was her voice…”

 

“Because I wanted to.

Come back to her.

To fight through this.

To be with her.”

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

He, 27, suffered catastrophic injuries.

When his vehicle hit.

An ‘orcs’ anti-tank mine.

On Ukraine’s frontline near Mariinka.

 

Nine months after.

‘Mordor’ launched.

Its full-scale invasion.

Of his country.

 

As a soldier already serving.

Before the war.

He had been thrown straight into.

The thick of the fighting.

 

From its first day.

In February 2022.

He often went weeks.

Without speaking to his wife.

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

He was travelling.

With seven other soldiers.

On November 2022.

When the vehicle was hit.

 

The force of the blast broke.

His spine, pelvis, nose, eye sockets.

Gave him an open-skull brain injury.

Severe burns to his face and body.

 

The force of the blast fractured his thigh.

And blew off both his lower legs.

The flames from the blast cauterised his wounds.

Inadvertently saving his life.

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

He can’t remember.

Anything from that day.

But his wife.

Will never forget it.

 

“I didn’t expect.

He would come back.

From the war.

With both his legs.”

 

“But even I wasn’t.

Prepared for the extent.

Of his wounds.

When I saw him.”

 

“My first thought was just relief.

That he was alive because.

By the description of.

What happened to him.”

 

“It was not clear that.

He would ever regain consciousness.

So I went to the hospital.

And I saw my beloved.”

 

“I saw my beloved.

Full of different tubes.

Totally unresponsive.

And that was scariest part.”

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

He regained consciousness.

After 20 days in a coma.

He then spent another week.

In intensive care.

 

He then spent another two weeks.

In the traumatic injuries unit.

And then months.

In rehabilitation.

 

He has a stoic approach to his injuries.

And says that, for him.

Losing two legs is better than.

Losing one arm.

 

His wife takes.

A similarly pragmatic approach:

“A blind, legless husband.

It’s not so bad.”

 

She laughs.

Adding that as a former dentist.

She’s just relieved.

He didn’t lose his teeth.

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

Last week, after travelling.

To the US in the hope of.

Saving a fraction of the sight.

In his remaining eye.

 

He was told the devastating news.

That it couldn’t be saved.

That he had fully lost.

His eyesight.

 

Although the couple.

Were disappointed.

They remain hopeful.

For the future.

 

And he now wants.

To spend his life.

Advocating for and helping.

His fellow injured soldiers.

 

“I have so many plans.

That one lifetime isn’t enough.

For all of it.

I definitely will go back to Ukraine.”

 

“That’s my country.

I fought for it.

I sustained my wounds for it.”

He plans to launch two organisations.

 

Both aimed at helping wounded veterans.

Including one to build infrastructure.

For their life.

After the war.

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

While he maintains that.

His injuries haven’t changed him.

His wife disagrees.

“He has become more responsible.”

 

“He was responsible before.

But it was his family.

His military unit.

But now he feels responsible.”

 

“For the whole country.

For all of Ukraine.”

“For the whole country.

For all of Ukraine.”

 

 

As he slowly began.

To regain consciousness.

In his hospital bed.

In Kyiv.

 

He realized.

He couldn’t see, speak.

Or feel his legs.

But he could hear his wife’s voice.

 

 

*Because I read “The blind Ukrainian amputee whose wife’s voice kept him alive” by J Keiligh Baker on 25 Feb 2024, 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 Serhiy and Valeria.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:

The blind Ukrainian amputee whose wife’s voice kept him alive – BBC News

 

 

**My friend shows you this poem on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!

Kurama (Japan). «A poet coming back» — a poem about war in Ukraine – Мала Сторінка (storinka.org)

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