Ukrainians, Like Animals Hiding From Icing Winter Poem by Moses Moreroa

Artillery designed to last for years but demolish in seconds
Massive tanks mounted high to tramp on the helpless
Live ammunition mastered for extracting life from life itself.

From east, south, west and north
In the air, on the land, and underground
Artillery drops fire and the globe is now kissing Venus,
Tankers send dust to dust
And submarines upsurge and upswing the waves of terror

Famine exacerbates and impairs the war on humanity
As bread, crumpets, muffins, noodles, pasta, biscuits and cakes
And pastries, cereal bars, sweet and savoury snack foods
And crackers, crisp-breads, sauces and confectionery
are reduced to a distant flavour and taste
For wheat becomes a cup of tea.

The beautiful game rears its ugly head
Players play with a diminishing hope
Goalposts are becoming smaller as the vision blurs larger
In the hands of a man found guilty of association.

Motors are hardly propelled forward
As fuel becomes even more of a luxury
But the urban carbon will warm Kyiv, Mariupol', Kharkiv
As they get bombarded by the art itself.
Oh, don't you wonder why nations build armour?
Time will come for the army to destruct.

There is not much oil to burn
Most of it has been under a ban,
Reducing energy in all facets
As gallons become more expensive.

As you wonder
Millions wander about the Black Sea;
Oh, Moses!
How we wish you were around
To open the Black Sea as you did with the Red
For millions to cross to safety
Or should we bow down to Mount Nebo?
But you too lost breath within sight of the Promised Land,
How can you save us, though?

As the West raises sanctions on one of its own,
Explosions continue to blow away peace
Wrecking into pieces monuments, apartments and temperaments.
As people take shelter on the ground
As caring nations run out of care for refugees
Now hundreds of thousands fail to flee and remain displaced on their own land
With even the weakest men tasked to stand strong.

Newborns are already seeing the exodus in genesis,
And the elderly cannot flee
As their death wish is in bed.

Ceasefire attempts are equally seen as fire
As sanctions loom in the capital,
And humanitarian corridor becomes too slim
For millions stagger, wobble and lurch
From the loud sirens to thunderous shelling,
As Europe as a whole fears the continental jumble.

From above schools are demolished
Next generation deterred?
Or should the diamond be refined?
When the dust is settled and polished?

A 60-kilometre convoy of invasion
Leads to suspicions of biological weapons
As artillery defence works fall short,
And the rocket sky cannot be closed
And it gets colder in Eastern Europe.

Semantics are equally at loggerheads,
Battling whether it is Special Military Operation or War.

All of the three estates are numb
Running out of running thoughts
Leaving The Fourth Estate to fire the last shot
And the freedom therein is limited only to the cause of the powerful
And hate speech fight gets relaxed as we face the book
To give prominence to the geopolitical war.
How things are not made permanent
But designed to be convenient.

When all is said and done,
Ukrainians,
Like animals hiding from icing winter
Hope for the fall to recede
So their lives as normal can proceed.