Ukraine

NIGHTMARE

 after “We Lived Happily During the War” by Ilya Kaminsky

We sent pop guns, but not
the right kind.

We sent firehoses, but too late
to help.

In our shiny … 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

FANTASY

We’re coming
with the guillotine

dear Vladimir

to cut off the shoah
to take back the stolen
billions.

Restore the house,
museum, hospital,
power plant.

We had no choice

you … 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 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

Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-piece-of-paper-with-an-anti-war-message-11302918/

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

The Direction of Home

 

Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

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

J’accuse

after Émile Zola

To the world at large,

I am an American Jew whose grandmother escaped to this country
fleeing the pogroms fomented and fostered by Putin’s forebearers from
what … Read more

For the Sake of My Children

 

Painting “For the Sake of My Children” by Lana Matskiv

Ripped from our land,
veins and arteries exposed.
My man must remain,
defend the homeland.

There’s a hole in … Read more