Power supply.
Is a matter of.
Life and death.
For her son.
Her son was born.
With disabilities and needs.
Electricity-powered equipment.
To be able to breathe.
With disabilities and needs.
Electricity-powered equipment.
To be able to eat.
And to receive medication.
“We are very dependent on electricity.
If it wasn’t for this bloody war.
Life would be difficult.
But we’d be able to cope.”
Recent blackouts.
Have lasted as long as.
12 hours a day.
In her neighbourhood.
Power supply.
Is a matter of.
Life and death.
For her son.
She lives in the southern.
Port city of Odesa.
The endless power cuts.
Make life extremely difficult.
Because she needs.
To make sure.
The supply of electricity.
Is constant.
She has a generator.
Which runs on petrol.
And needs to be topped up.
All the time.
But it has to.
Be stopped.
Every six hours.
To cool down.
Power supply.
Is a matter of.
Life and death.
For her son.
Power cuts also affect.
Mobile phone coverage.
So getting through to the ambulance service.
For her son can be a struggle too.
“Sometimes it takes half an hour.
Sometimes it’s an hour.
Before the ambulance arrives.
When my child goes into convulsions.”
“And turns blue.
My son can die.
If he doesn’t get oxygen.
I’m lost for words.”
Recent blackouts.
Have lasted as long as.
12 hours a day.
In her neighbourhood.
Power supply.
Is a matter of.
Life and death.
For her son.
*Because I read “’We’ve learnt to do surgery without electricity’: Ukraine’s power cuts worsen” by Vitaly Shevchenko on 6 Jul 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 Tetiana.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Ukrainians struggle as power outages worsen (bbc.com)
**My friend kindly shows you this poem in one page of the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them! You can read my 100 poems here at once.
