Written in March 2022 in response to Simon Armitage's 'Resistance'

We watch

                      the News

unable

                to comprehend

the horror that is war:

we see

destruction... death... weeping...

children who do not understand

      held in the arms of mothers

                who do not understand

anything

                                except

the shells that rain down:

the craters of death

      the hospitals destroyed

                the crumbling burning buildings

anything

                                except

the dead baby they hold;

the screaming bleeding toddler

      whose hand they hold

                but cannot comfort

anything

                                except

having no place to go:

no idea what to do now

      having nothing now

                no home, no food, no hope now

 

We think we feel their pain

      distress, shock,

                anger, outrage; we feel

anything

                                except

their shattered lives:

their lack of any future.

 

Once it was called propaganda: now

Putin's fake news

                does not know war and justifies

                his special military operation

Our fake news

shows politicians

                denying our help is inadequate

                claiming we welcome all refugees

                denying yesterday's statements:

shames us

 

A siren politician can't fully mute

      the real war news -

                we can only hope it ends.