Some Lake in Ukraine
The dam broke Wednesday and the Dnieper waters poured.
Now Kakhovka reservoir can’t be fished in, anymore.
That Concrete wall rose 98 feet—98 feet from deep to peak!
Then it … Read more
Ukraine
It’s My Birthday!
“It’s my birthday!”
I sing out to everyone.
From the lady decorating my cake,
To the man who’s slicing the meat.
“It’s a very special day,” they all echo back.… Read more
Our Ukraine
The war in Ukraine, a tale of pain,
Mobilization, preparations for war again,
Initial engagements, battles fierce,
Crimea taken, hearts filled with tears.
Escalation, the fighting intensifies,
Separatists supported by … Read more
We Could Have Been Freedom Fighters
It’s the Solstice & I visit Diana
in her home above agate-strewn shores
obscured by eucalyptus trees
and clouds, dense and gray as tanks
The shortest day of the year … Read more
Take heart
Ukraine! Your flag of cerulean blue
and sun-gold says sky’s the place
where the improbable reigns: clouds
and things with wings. Who’d have
imagined such a fertile
thirst as sky?… Read more
The Hymns We Used to Sing
We were civilized as we walked.
The food we’d … Read more
The Polish Border
Your baby
looks like our baby bundled into her pink snowsuit.
Yours is zipped into a snowsuit with flowers.
You hold her up to the Red Cross worker.
The international … Read more
The Hunger Of War
They’re piling up
or splayed out
on streets
body after body
civilians
unarmed
or ill-advisedly
armed
in haste
and heroism
their meat is needed
to feed the hunger.… Read more
This little slab of horror
This terrible reason to pray
I keep stuffing my prayers
back through the glass
but the war won’t go away.
About the Poem
On a Saturday in April 2022, I … Read more
As Tanks Press Toward Kyiv
(and you gather with family in a restaurant in Philly)
You want to know why
it persists, this curse of the human,
pyromania at the heart’s core,
the dream and … Read more
On Escaping Mariupol
No, they say, it’s not true—
we haven’t been heroes.
The soldiers who stood
our ground have been
shot, their backs to the sea.
Our mission was this: to … Read more
The Direction of Home
The snow remembers once it was fruit,
steps taken in the direction of home,
stems poked out, embedded ice homed
in a … Read more
Picture Window
March wind shudders
against the glass, shattering
sun and shadows of leaves
into moving mosaics on the wood floor.
Outside, the morning breaks,
almost too bright to bear.
It’s Monday. … Read more