Untitled

 

Leaving their men

back in the battered streets  

women are heavily heading to

dark uncertainties across the border

 

This International Women’s Day

now frequently sounds like siren

warning them to promptly lie down

on the ground that now smells

burnt flesh of the earth

 

Leaving their hearts and wombs behind

a caravan of women is dragging itself  

toward the west of west

Their bleeding sun has already sunk

behind the horizon

 

But even in the thick of bomb shelling

a young woman emerges

out of a burnt house,

walks straight to her fiancé

who has just turned a soldier,

hugs him tight and plants a passionate kiss

on his quivering lips.

He, now more charged,

firmly takes position aiming at the approaching tank.

 

And his fiancée’s eyes are already on the wings

to nurse the wounded sun  

and bring it back to glorious new radiance   

_________________

                                                 08 March 2022.

[Dedicated to the Ukrainian women on the occasion of this International Women’s Day.]

-          mps