On watching the evacuation of Ukrainian women and children.
Through the trepidous rumble
of Ukrainian rails
there are train cars loaded with passengers fleeing a merciless war
and their reddened eyes
and vacuous stare
say it all
where can they go
a little girl asks her mama
where are my friends
but there is no answer
for the truth is horrific
her mother is frightened
alone on this journey
afraid for her husband who has stayed home to fight
her head on the window
her tears In profusion
she prays for the child who rests on her lap
back in the city centuries old buildings burn through the night
the stench of death is in the air and hell lights up the sky
explosions then sirens
a baby cries
where can they go
another bomb blast
and in the charred debris
an old man is bleeding
he calls out for help
but nobody comes
and his life disappears
there are thousands like him
but one is too many
the citizen throng of the invading force who didn’t want war
now face the world’s wrath
but they’re just more victims of this diabolical rogue
isolated in their homeland
where can they go
the schemes of this madman ring as in a war before
you remember the certainty
this could never happen again
yet it has
or so it seems
but hope is creeping in
the adversary’s strength has been overestimated
the tyrant image
is not precise reality
the wizard of oz is once more exposed
nations have rallied
more emboldened
but no matter
here the dead are no less dead
the maimed are maimed
what’s done is done
even with the nation being laid to rubble
the tiger’s still hungry
there is want for more no matter the cost of innocents
how much more no one knows
but the most violent of all threats
not only to the Ukraine
but to the planet
is the cloud of Hiroshima
so where can they go
A Poem by Greg Nelson
© 2021 by Poppie’s Hallel
(BMI. Admin. by Amplified Administration)
The Human Wave 