February 2022 (Couplets) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after WH Auden)

The Russian bear does revel in causing gore
its vicious claws no living thing can ignore,
with demonic eyes its gazes all over the earth,
indoctrinates in hate its tribe from birth:
that only the fittest and strong survive
but it has no sense of what is life,
while roaring it tries to master speech
destroys everything within its reach,
witless it does prance and subjugate,
with blood on its breath mindless does wait…

[Reference: August 1968 by WH Auden.

Poet's Note: The events in the Ukraine caused me to write this poem.
I am quoting WH Auden's poem which he wrote after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.


"August 1968" by WH Auden

"The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible to Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach,
The Ogre cannot master Speech:
About a subjugated plain,
Among its desperate and slain,
The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,
While drivel gushes from his lips."]
© Gert Strydom