Illustrations by Nikita Titov.
Kurama
(Japan)
POETS IN THE VILLAGES WEST OF KYIV
Was it only blind bad luck?
Vanished. What does that mean?
Was it only blind bad luck?
Disappeared. What was that cause?
A father went out on an errand,
and didn't return.
In the village of Hurivshchyna.
She is waiting for her father.
“He left home and never came back.
And nobody saw him anywhere.”
He lived a few houses over in the village.
But “Not dead, not alive. Like into thin air.”
Was it only blind bad luck?
Vanished. What does that mean?
Was it only blind bad luck?
Disappeared. What was that cause?
A brother took petrol to a friend,
and never arrived.
In the village of Shpytky.
She is waiting for her brother.
On the shoulder of the highway.
His car was riddled with bullet holes.
It had been burned through.
But there were no signs of a body.
Was it only blind bad luck?
Vanished. What does that mean?
Was it only blind bad luck?
Disappeared. What was that cause?
In the villages, west of Kyiv.
‘Orcs’ occupied for a month.
People are haunted by the missing.
Nothing but a desperate wait.
One by one, it has become clear.
‘Orcs’ took some into ‘Mordor’.
Hoping for finding on the list.
Until that call, all people can do is wait.
Illustrations by Nikita Titov.
Source: https://www.koryu-meets-chess.info/
The original story on the BBC news is like this:
In Ukrainian villages, a desperate wait for news of the missing — BBC News
Please read more poems by Kurama about 2022 russian invasion of Ukraine:
"Aware of a poet?
Aware of a poet?
A poet of Cossack broods over the land.
Not noting a bullet.
Not noting a bullet.
You see a poet of Cossack in Borodyanka."(Kurama)
