“So many of our boys.
Are dying.
So many are wounded.
They’re sacrificing their lives.”
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
Most of Pokrovsk.
Is now without.
Power and water.
At a school.
There is a queue of people.
Carrying empty canisters.
Waiting to use.
A communal tap.
A few days ago.
Four taps were working.
But now they are.
Down to just one.
“So many of our boys.
Are dying.
So many are wounded.
They’re sacrificing their lives.”
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
Driving through the streets.
Pockets of destruction are visible.
But the city hasn’t yet been.
Bombed out like others.
That have been fiercely.
Fought over.
You meet a woman, 69.
Buying sacks of potatoes.
At one of a handful of.
Food stalls still open.
At the otherwise.
Shuttered-down central market.
“I’m terrified.
I can’t live without sedatives.”
“I’m terrified.
I can’t live without sedatives.”
“So many of our boys.
Are dying.
So many are wounded.
They’re sacrificing their lives.”
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
On her small pension.
She doesn’t think.
She would be able to.
Afford rent somewhere else.
“The government might.
Take me somewhere.
And shelter me for a while.
But what after that?”
Another shopper.
A 77-year-old chimes in.
“You can’t go anywhere.
Without money.”
“So we just sit.
In our home.
And hope that.
This will end.”
“So many of our boys.
Are dying.
So many are wounded.
They’re sacrificing their lives.”
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
The first shopper thinks.
It’s time to negotiate.
With ‘Mordor’.
– a sentiment.
That might have been.
Unthinkable for most.
In Ukraine.
Some time ago.
But at least here.
Near the front line.
You found many.
Voicing it.
“So many of our boys.
Are dying.
So many are wounded.
They’re sacrificing their lives.”
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
“And this is going on.
And on,” she says.
*Because I read “Fighting Russia – and low morale – on Ukraine’s ‘most dangerous front line’” by Yogita Limaye on 14 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, including a story of Larysa and Raisa.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine’s fierce battle to defend the eastern city of Potrovsk (bbc.com)