Images Of War In Ukraine (Lamentations From The Heart) Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

A boy brings canned food
to the grave of his mother,
on a heap of Ukrainian soil
planted with a wooden cross
Along the deserted road.

A mother weeps a sea of tears
under the dark sky, not able
to retrieve her own child
from the heaps of ruins
of day and night bombings.

A son wakes up, his legs gone
And his parents and grandma
soaked in blood, lifeless and cold
in a dark corner in Mariupol
without light, water, and food.

A pregnant mother on labor
Screamed to give birth to her child,
was rushed out from the bombed hospital
in Kershon across clogged roads of ruins
but died with the baby in her womb.

A father says goodbye
To his wife and child
As he leads them to board a train
Among thousands of refugees
Towards a safe shelter in Poland.

Corpses lie on the street
In Butja, hands tied, left
To the investigators to find
Out the story of their deaths.
And the bombings continue
In the Eastern part of this land.

A cat wanders on the lost road
On top of ruins and fallen weapons
Looking for his own master
Who used to give him
hugs, food, and shelter,
sharing the common fate
in war: alone, homeless, disowned.