New year, same battle

Channeling emotions into poems.

Photo of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains by Oleksandr Kalinin.

Every day, I try to stay optimistic and productive, keep fundraising for Ukraine, keep spreading awareness, and keep fighting, but with each passing year, it’s becoming more and more difficult. I wish I could write something uplifting for today’s newsletter, but all I can do is channel my emotions into poems.

Imagine

Imagine evil came to your home,
and a black cloud of death covered the sun.
You’re telling your frightened kids to stay silent 
and hide them in the basement.
As enemy’s boots march to your door,
and planes drop bombs from the sky,
you whisper every prayer you know,
and cover the mouths of your children
with shaking hands. Shhh…
When all you want is to scream at the top of your lungs in terror.

Imagine evil came to your home,
and you ask the world for help.
Because this is the 21st century, for God’s sake,
and you don’t want your kids to die from missiles, bullets, and rape.

You see people, 
good, kind, educated people,
saying they are against the war, 
and weapons, 
and you just need to surrender,
and peace will come.

But it doesn’t make sense, right?

So you resist and fight as much as you can, 
and these people tell you 
how sorry they are for your suffering, 
and you only prolong your pain by resisting.
You need to hug your enemy, 
because you are “brothers,” 
and why you are so hateful, 
you need to be forgiving.

These “good people” don’t want you 
to spoil their privileged, empty lives
by your living.

Imagine, while you are being killed,
you see people earning money and fame 
by twisting your words and using your pain,
and walking on the bones of your dead friends, 
and siding with evil.

People who have never been to your home, 
tell you that what you saw wasn’t true, 
and if it was, maybe you deserved it 
by provoking the enemy.
Maybe you don’t know what’s going on at all, 
but they know what’s best for you.
Let smart people speak and discuss your fate.
Silly, what are you saying? 
We can’t understand it. 
You are too emotional.
You have too much hate.

Imagine, 
you are told that you are biased 
and cannot be objective about the enemy 
who wants to kill everyone you love.
Imagine that.

You see the world trading with evil,
believing the words evil says 
and doubting every single word of you.
Imagine people telling you 
that you are not good enough to receive the help you need,
but they use very complicated words in foreign languages,
hoping that you won’t understand 
that they are too afraid of this evil themselves,
so they decided to sacrifice you.

Imagine, 
you look around, and all you see are graves, 
thousands and thousands of graves: 
people you went to school with, 
people you lived close to, 
people you worked with, 
people you were friends with, 
people you love.

Ukrainians don’t need to imagine. This is their life.

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“Unbiased”

They sit in safety across the ocean
and say how bad all wars are.
They juggle big words, 
but I see them juggling dead people’s heads.
They think their privilege makes them unbiased 
while it blinds them
and gives a false feeling of superiority.
They write catchy headlines 
and pose as objective experts:

“Resistance only prolongs the war,”
“Peace talks, no weapons,”
“All borders are abstract,”
“Both sides are wrong.”

I want to scream, but they won’t hear me, of course. 
They won’t hear the screams of tortured people, too.
They don’t know the fear when you see 
armed men entering your home 
and killing everyone you know
before killing you.

All they hear is their voices 
echoing in the walls of the ivory towers.
Telling them how good, smart, and objective they are.
Making them feel good about themselves —
and other privileged fools repeat their words 
and spread them far.

Sometimes, I think if you X-ray their chests,
you will see a dark, empty space 
where the hearts usually are.

---

Too late

People who live in safe countries 
think that wars happen somewhere 
but never to them.
They see destruction and bombings 
only on their screen.

They are busy with their lives
and don’t pay much attention 
to the world’s news.
They take for granted 
the freedom they have
and forget that it’s not free.

They raise kids, plan for the future, 
and play in politics.
They know they have power, 
weapons, and troops.
They can’t even imagine 
that someone is going to invade.

Until one day, 
missiles hit their roofs.
Then, they will understand, 
but it will be too late.

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This year is said to be the year of the dragon. It reminded me of the last verse of the poem I wrote in the spring of 2022, right after we found out about the Russian atrocities in Bucha, Irpin, and other towns and villages in the Kyiv region.

I want to be a big white bird
that will shield all Ukrainian people
and animals with her wings
from the evil 
that Russian monsters brought to them.

When everyone is safe under her feathers,
the bird will turn into a dragon
and will burn to death everyone 
who hurt them.

I hope this year, like the dragon from my poem, will bring long-overdue justice. Keep standing with Ukraine and being on the right side of history. Support Ukrainian fundraisers, write to your representatives, and demand weapons and support for Ukraine. Remember that the only way out is through, and it’s not through the appeasement of Russia.

Warmly,

Darya

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Email: daryazorka@substack.com

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