I am Ukraine

I am a person
man woman child
gay straight transgender
I am a human being
I am Ukraine
in a neighbour’s country
as sovereign as my own
they have unlocked the asylum
the lunatic is out
and has unleashed his dogs of war
where they have passed
I am raped
and have with knitting needles
aborted the travesty of tapestry
that would be my cross
I am maimed amputated
gargoyle-faced
to terrify the children
my generations are murdered
bulldozed in mass graves
when peace comes
I shall exhume them
and name them
in sacred hieroglyphics
on the monument to martyrs
my brother is a prisoner
tortured and deported to the camps
my brother is shot for being
my brother comes home mindless
his brain detritus on a battlefield
I am homeless and nomadic
precision missiles and drones
gift-wrapped
from the imams of iran
have done for me
my home in ruins
my hospital a casualty with no first aid
my school twisted girders
where children in the playground
are hanged on swings
my power lines wasted
I freeze I starve I die perhaps
but shall not yield
the moral virgin ground is mine
I am Ukraine
the time of the barbarians shall pass
as it ever does
the tyrant shall die his tyrant’s death
caesar the ides of march
stalin assisted into his eternal night
generations of russians
shall pay my reconstruction and my recuperation
I shall be the undead ghost
that murders their sleep
I am Ukraine
man woman child
gay straight transgender
I am a human being
I am Ukraine
in a neighbour’s country
as sovereign as my own
they have unlocked the asylum
the lunatic is out
and has unleashed his dogs of war
where they have passed
I am raped
and have with knitting needles
aborted the travesty of tapestry
that would be my cross
I am maimed amputated
gargoyle-faced
to terrify the children
my generations are murdered
bulldozed in mass graves
when peace comes
I shall exhume them
and name them
in sacred hieroglyphics
on the monument to martyrs
my brother is a prisoner
tortured and deported to the camps
my brother is shot for being
my brother comes home mindless
his brain detritus on a battlefield
I am homeless and nomadic
precision missiles and drones
gift-wrapped
from the imams of iran
have done for me
my home in ruins
my hospital a casualty with no first aid
my school twisted girders
where children in the playground
are hanged on swings
my power lines wasted
I freeze I starve I die perhaps
but shall not yield
the moral virgin ground is mine
I am Ukraine
the time of the barbarians shall pass
as it ever does
the tyrant shall die his tyrant’s death
caesar the ides of march
stalin assisted into his eternal night
generations of russians
shall pay my reconstruction and my recuperation
I shall be the undead ghost
that murders their sleep
I am Ukraine
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