SHADOW

(for Ukraine) Sara L Russell 24/3/22 at 00:58am

A pin drops

a shadow falls

a cat yawns

a baby falls asleep.

Spinning silent worlds of dreams,

the evening descends.

Like a distant refrain of music

the laughter of children, up past bedtime,

carries through an open window.

They are so near it

and yet they cannot hear it…

Vape smoke winds through an alleyway

bearing infectious microbes on 

tiny hemp-scented aerosols;

a faint rumble of thunder 

sounds from the horizon

like an incantation of a curse;

while babies dream on

a cat snoozes by a synthetic coal fire

a housewife admires her face on her phone

a dog barks

a boy larks around with a ball

and the sun will still rise in the mourning

and none could have guessed before

that they were living in the shadow

of war.

The Memorial Garden

Sara L. Russell 29/3/33 14:35

No flowers bloom in the garden lost to love

no birds can sing, no lakes mirror the sky;

no seed can pierce the earth for long enough

to form a blossom pleasing to the eye.

No children play on the street blackened by fire

that tips the Geiger counters off the scale;

no lovers walk, nor sing of warm desire

no-one shall pass by ruined road or rail.

Only the insects, deep beneath the earth.

will live on, in reduced capacity;

while ghosts of men dream vainly of rebirth

and our unguarded sun distils the sea.