Sunday 6th March 2022
Walking out this blue-sky day,
a helicopter, passing, blurs –
what’s here, what’s there, what difference…
Stop. Breathe.
Unchanged slope of the upper field,
familiar march of blackthorn hedge, sheep
may safely graze.
Children, pale in bobble hats
pressing palms to the carriage glass.
At Echo Moskvy, truth is gagged
welcome to the USSR.*
Remember, way back, in Leningrad,
headscarved grannies bowing low,
sung responses wrung from bone
Góspodi pomílui
Góspodi pomílui
Hóspodi pomílui
Hóspod…**
Listen, high in a leafless tree
a tiny bird, unexpectedly –
so small a creature, such a voice
outsinging a murder of crows.
* Comment made at Echo Moskvy independent radio station as the staff exited in
protest at official demands regarding the reporting of the invasion of Ukraine.
* * Lord have mercy. Russian, then Ukrainian.
Denise Steele
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