Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
On Sunday morning who went?
Afishing in the Moskva,
And catched a fish upon whose heuk?
Who thowt leukt vary queer?
But whatnt kind oer fish is it was,
Young who couldn’t tell?
Who waddnt fash to carry it hyem?
So who hoyed it in a well?
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
Noo who felt inclined to gann?
An fight in neighbour wars,
Who joined a troop of Cossacks that cared?
For nowther wounds nor scars,
But ‘the One’ got fat an growed and
Growed, an growed an aaful size.
He’d greet big teeth and a greet big gob
An greet big goggly eyes.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
An activist-turned-fighter.
Was killed when soldiers.
From his volunteer battalion.
Came under ‘orcs’ artillery fire.
In the Kharkiv region.
Of north-eastern Ukraine.
“He was, and.
He remains a hero”.
For now, there are.
No more details.
“He was, and.
He remains a hero”.
And the Legion itself.
Won’t comment whilst.
It says a military operation.
Is still active.
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
He became known.
In ‘Mordor’.
A decade ago.
For his persistence.
In staging.
Peaceful protests.
As political repression.
There intensified.
He was the first person.
Prosecuted under.
A new Article 212.1.
That in 2014 made it.
A criminal offence to.
Commit repeat violations of.
‘Mordor’’s increasingly.
Restrictive rules on protest.
In his case.
That simply meant.
Standing on the streets.
Of Moscow with a banner.
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
Sentenced to.
Two and a half years.
He was placed.
In a punishment cell.
And immediately.
Went on hunger strike.
His prison guards then.
Tortured him to get him to stop.
Soon after his release.
In 2017.
He described being hung from.
A wall by his cuffed wrists.
The guards had then.
Threatened him with rape.
He admitted that the brutality.
Nearly broke him.
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
“I can’t sit by.
And do nothing.
And so become an accomplice.
To ‘orcs’ evil, to its crimes.”
He explained his decision.
To sign-up.
Just as principled and.
Intense as you remembered him.
He’d always considered.
Himself a pacifist.
But now listed his reasons.
For taking-up arms:
“The aggression.
The mass killing.
The torture.
Rape and looting.”
Still, he chose.
The callsign Gandhi.
Still, he chose.
The callsign Gandhi.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
He felt deeply that.
That he bore personal responsibility.
For ‘orcs’ full-scale invasion.
Of its neighbour.
He argued that.
He and fellow ‘orcs’.
Had failed to.
Stop ‘the One’.
Allowing themselves to.
Be scared off the streets.
By police violence.
And the threat of prison.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
“The main thing.
Now is to act.
According to.
My conscience.”
He wrote to you.
One night from.
Near the frontline.
In Sumy.
He initially signed-up.
With the Siberian Battalion.
In June 2023.
Before moving to.
The Freedom of Russia Legion.
Last winter.
– both officially part of.
The ‘elves’ Armed Forces.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
Recruits are mainly.
‘Orcs’ citizens who.
Hope that helping Ukraine.
Defeat ‘the One’ will be.
A first step.
Towards ending.
His rule.
In ‘Mordor’.
Their numbers.
Aren’t clear.
Nor their effectiveness.
As a fighting force.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
They have claimed some successes.
Including a cross-border incursion.
Into ‘Mordor’ earlier this year.
At the time of ‘the One’’s re-election.
But for him.
The experience wasn’t.
Quite as.
He’d hoped.
He felt that some of.
The missions his unit were.
Sent on were “pointless”.
In any military sense.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
He described one battle.
Where he ended up.
Pinned down for eight hours.
By ‘orcs’ fire in a bomb crater.
With a drone trying to.
Drop a grenade on him.
Whilst a fellow volunteer soldier.
Bled to death.
And like many ‘elves’ soldiers.
He was exhausted.
Fighting with barely any days off.
And limping from a wound to his hip.
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
But he was clear.
His conscience would not.
Allow him to sit.
“On the sidelines”.
Not whilst ‘elves’ were.
Being killed.
As he put it.
“By ‘orcs’ criminals”.
“I tried to stop ‘Mordor’.
– but did I do it?
No,” he berated himself.
“No,” he berated himself.
“And thousands of people.
Have been killed.
Because I did not.
Do enough.”
Those who sent him.
To fight, disagree.
“He was strong, brave.
Principled and honest.”
“He was, and.
He remains a hero”.
“That’s how we should.
Remember him.”
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
On Sunday morning who went?
Afishing in the Moskva,
And catched a fish upon whose heuk?
Who thowt leukt vary queer?
But whatnt kind oer fish is it was,
Young who couldn’t tell?
Who waddnt fash to carry it hyem?
So who hoyed it in a well?
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ aa’ll tell ye aall an aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An’ Aa’ll tel ye ‘boot ‘the One’.
Noo who felt inclined to gann?
An fight in neighbour wars,
Who joined a troop of Cossacks that cared?
For nowther wounds nor scars,
But ‘the One’ got fat an growed and
Growed, an growed an aaful size.
He’d greet big teeth and a greet big gob
An greet big goggly eyes.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
*Because I read “Russian opposition activist killed fighting for Ukraine” by Sarah Rainsford on 7 Oct 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 Ildar Dadin, led by ‘Jabberwocky’ from ‘THROUGH the LOOKING-GLASS’ written by Lewis Carroll, you know.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin killed fighting for Ukraine (bbc.com)
Through ‘Jabberwocky’ and what I found there was ‘the Lambton Worm’, you know:
The Lambton Worm – The Lord and The Legend – Historic UK (historic-uk.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 44 poems here at once.
