It started with the words, “…Mama, I am afraid.
Words any soldier facing an enemy would say.
The phrase that cause my tears to bank
before overflowing down my face were these,
“They throw their bodies under the wheels,”
under armored vehicles and tanks
meant to protect or attack,
depending upon one’s side.
“They told us we would be welcomed.”
With open arms, “They hate us.”
Was he dismayed before he died;
before those tanks and vehicles
carried death to those unarmed?
Soldiers die, their innocence intact;
their innocence dead, if they survive.
And all I can do from afar
is cry, and cry, and cry.
For soldiers on both sides
of Putin’s lies.
annarino writes 