Ukraine

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

Endurance in March 2022

 

endurance
    jaw-dropping

frigid… stunned
    crushed

escaping

against
    all… odds

remarkably

international treaty
    disturbed

man’s will
    to survive

About the Poem

I don’t know if it’s an accepted poetic form to … Read more

Performance Art

 

Artwork: istockphoto by Getty Images in public domain

He’s the last man standing.
Whether comedian
or statesman
performance is all
for the last man standing.
Standing in the rubble … Read more

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

 

Image: A woman is visible through the condensation on a window of an evacuation train at Kyiv central train station. by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

A blast, shattered… Read more

SEASON OF LENT DURING WARTIME

 

Ukrainian churches are shelters
for the traumatized during Lent 2022.
As neighborhoods are bombed
to rubble, clergy welcome
households to precarious safety,
saviors fulfilling more than liturgical roles.

Fasting … Read more

The Poet Spoke for Me

 

The Israeli man I married—and divorced—had parents who were born in Chernivtsi, then in Romania, now in Ukraine. We met on the way to Machu Picchu after he finished … Read more

Kiev or Kyiv?

  • by

say it in Russian
or in true Ukrainian
the stark fact remains

on the scary brink
of catastrophic bloodshed
we wait for Putin

his fragile ego
breeds ambition to rebuild… Read more

I DON’T SPEAK UKRANIAN

I don’t speak Ukrainian,
no way to read their funnies;
Danila the Demonslayer
or the Red Fury. I can’t read
the letters you sent, Zayda,
in Ukrainian and Yiddish. I’m … Read more