“Ok, let’s go!”
Announces the driver.
“Thank God it’s quiet here!”
And for the first time.
A glimpse of a smile appears.
On the faces of his passengers.
As they drive away from.
The horrors of the war.
“My wife is very ill.
So I decided to leave.
It’s unbearable.
I need to leave to save her.”
He is among six people.
who left with a volunteer.
They made a short stop.
In Myrnohrad.
Some 50km away from.
Their hometown of Avdiivka.
They looked on.
With interest.
As people walked along the pavement.
And cars waited at traffic lights.
They hadn’t seen such scenes.
For nearly two years.
Just half an hour before.
As they were leaving Avdiivka.
A shell landed near their second car.
But luckily no-one was hurt.
She, 79, is still shaking.
From the journey through.
What is now known as.
The “road of life”.
Three times shells and rockets.
Fell near her house.
But it was the death of her husband.
That pushed her to leave.
“He went out to get bread.
And never came back.”
She said, crying.
“I’ve been left alone.”
“I was so scared.
During the strikes.
That my leg got paralysed.”
She wipes tears off her face.
But memories.
Keep coming.
“My house burnt down.
The ceiling collapsed.”
“They hit a house next to mine.
There was a bang.
And it turned into dirt.
Nothing left of it.”
Her fellow passenger.
Left behind his grandparents.
Who refused to leave.
“My grandmother is paralysed and immobile.”
“Ok, let’s go!”
Announces the driver.
“Thank God it’s quiet here!”
And for the first time.
A glimpse of a smile appears.
On the faces of his passengers.
As they drive away from.
The horrors of the war.
*Because I read “Ukraine war: Nothing but rubble in shattered ghost town Avdiivka” by Abdujalil Abdurasulov on 30 Jan 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 Victor, a story of Ekaterina and a story of Roma.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Nothing but rubble in shattered ghost town Avdiivka (bbc.com)
**My friend shows you this poem with two other ones on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!
