Arlena Barsecova (Sonnets) Poem by Gert Strydom

1
Arlena Barsecova in the Ukraine
near Kiev as a pensioner aged seventy,
gave reports that to Russian movements appertain
to Ukrainian soldiers about the enemy

but this identification cost her life
as she explained to her son over the phone
to help her countrymen to survive,
from a remote house as accurate as a drone.

The assault of the Russians moving past
and their barbaric acts gave her hatred,
she wanted her country to survive and last
while the different vehicles she rated

from next to the road she did overlook
and in patriotism this mission undertook.
2
She acted like an elite commando scout
while she did explain what she saw,
did fire on the enemy for two weeks draw,
heard Russians joke, laugh and shout

of anti-aircraft missiles she knew about,
was held by the soldiers in great awe:
fire on the radar-station was the last straw
while she did all of this with painful gout.

The radar-station did jam communication,
the Bauk missiles did shoot aircraft down.
Two Russian tanks with shells did her house raise
after she drew fire on hundreds of their nation
her house was in a village away from a town,
they did turn it to rubble and set it ablaze.