The sultry summer winds
Rush beneath my feet.
The past melts away.

I came for you,
And you had come for me
The crown finally in our reach.

The winds howl so loudly,
Running to here, separated.

Oh! I only know,
Know that you'll take me with you!
Wherever the winds may carry us, my beloved.

Magical worlds left behind in haste,
But those distant paths, they'll all lead us home,
You need wait but a moment!

Oh! I only know,
Know that you'll take me with you!
Wherever the winds may carry us, my beloved.

Oh! Do not leave me behind,
Wait and I will come, my beloved.

Russia?
will Russia spare?
will Russia spare some peace?
will Russia spare Ukraine some peace?
sorry: they are at the feast
of making Russia important and strong,
and, as some Ukrainians were wrong,
as some Ukrainians were bad
wanting to be free with the West,
Russia did its best
to take the Crimea to protect their "toungue",
and, as it appeared it was great fun
for Russians living there,
even if it wasn't fair!
and Russians opened a war against Ukraine,
as Russia's government was in pain,
that Europe would accept Ukraine,
that, be it snow or rain,
Ukrainians were sane,
so Russia got the mean aim
to ruin Ukraine
as Ukrainians wanted their language and independence,
and Russia was counting onto the dependence
to have the slaves in Ukraine,
thus, killing the soldiers, Russia wanted to tame
Ukraine
putting it in ruins and flames
to get the fame
of the framer,
while the West was talking and shaking hands
with the accompaniment of the bands.
    Ivan Petryshyn

My plan is to graduate, go to college in some state
To take my friend to Canada before it's too late

I want to be a teacher or a councillor, something nice
I want to travel around the world, no matter the price

To go see China and learn the language and their ways
To go to Africa and watch how they live for days

I want to travel to India and visit some friends
I want to spend my life in Italy and hope it never ends

Germany, France, Mexico, Spain
Romania, Greece, Iraq, Ukraine

I really need to go to "the land of the green"
Meet up with friends and do everything in between

I know that I won't travel that far or do all of those things
But I have to be honest, it's a wonderful dream

I fight and die for my country
While the world sits idly by
It's not for fame or money
It's a fight to stay alive

I watch my comrades fall
Riddled with bullet holes
They're the ones who gave all
They paid their debt in full

We give our blood for freedom
Our lives and bodies too
We pray for help to come
And pray that we pull through

I'll fight until I pass
Until I'm finally dead
Until I breathe my last
With a bullet in my head

a pentagon study
determined that putin
is an anti-social control freak
kind of vermin

(really? this required a genius
kind of keenness? really?)

darpa should stick to cool things
like the internet and invisibility cloaks
and drones armed with pork parts


a rodina rodent in the grain
needs spankin'
with more than just sanctions

cuz knocking out their incisors
doesn't make them any nicer

- a rat with no teeth
is still a rat.

The first great war took many people
But it was just a start for worse
It took the best of us, the livers
To revolution's ****** horse

This war erased aristocracy
This war had eat my own home land
Kurmysh was town at Sura river
Untill they came, soviet's undead

A part of us was pushed from home lands
Another part had shot in head
They called themselves a freedom bringers
But that was thing old Lenin said

While winners write the history
The truth becomes a mystery
Then bandits become heroes
And heroes gone to dust

And now, the robbers, killers
Are called a freedom givers
In part of lost empire
Ukraine, which now are sold

I am wheat
I cry, I cry
Again
You leave your dead
At my feet
Oh why, oh why

At Gettysburg
We cried
Again, again
They rose and died
Below our stalks
They lie, they lie

From Stalingrad
To Leningrad
One million dead, one million dead
The Panzers came
Wheat fields aflame
They burned, they burned

And once again
You leave your dead
Ukraine, Ukraine
Oh, Putin's shame
The innocent lie
In wheat, in wheat.

r ~ 7/19/14

Outside, but not so far away,
Missiles are falling;
Early snow has settled
Beneath gray overcast....
Sirens in the distance
Send their low moan
Across the miles...
Echo faintly in our canyon.

Too cold for lightning,
We turn away from light
Flickering or flashing
Upon the bellied skies...
Don't want to think
About the thundering
The light implies.

Muffled sound and muted light
Confirm our living
Away from town.
Perhaps we are
Far enough....
These days, though,
Places to run are few,
And war is moving out.

At least the news has stopped....
Was sporadic
Then...
Stopped altogether
Now.
Almost a relief....

The coal oil lamp -
Her mother's mother's -
Burns a reddish glow...
Diesel's charring smudge...
Comforts us
In a growing dark.

Roast potatoes,
Rabbit stew,
Pickled beets...
No bread this time
As I uncork chokecherry wine...

And it is summer 1999....
We are standing in tall grass
Somewhere between Red Lodge
And Laurel along the road,
Ice cream pails echoing
With plopping chokecherries
Near black and hanging thick
Like miniature clusters of grapes.

We are there to beat the birds and bears,
Knowing choke-cherrying
Is the hurried work of many races,
Some wearing claws upon their heavy hands,
Others flitting in with beaks upon their faces.

And then the kitchen smells of cherries boiling down
For syrups and for jam,
The old ten gallon glass fermenting juice and sugar,
Stands waiting in the corner,
Later to be filtered off and corked away
In twice-used bottles....

Other years and other picking times
Lie bottled  in wooden racks below,
But we have chokecherry wine tonight,
While storms we never thought we'd know
Blow hard against the world.