#easternfront
The Eastern Gale
A Linked Tanka Sequence
***
Summer heat arrives—
across endless eastern plains
engines wake at dawn.
Steel columns move toward sunrise
through wheat fields unaware.
Thunder shakes the earth,
bridges tremble under fire
beneath crimson skies.
Villages vanish in smoke
before the iron advance.
Europe waits in fear
as the eastern front widens
beyond all borders.
Rumours spread through foreign lands
like sparks upon dry forests.
General Rain appears—
roads dissolve to drowning clay
beneath heavy wheels.
Field Marshal Mud takes command,
dragging armies to stillness.
Far beyond the Urals
silent frozen horsemen wait
wrapped in winter white.
Siberian knights gather strength
where icy winds forge survival.
Across distant seas
Japan turns her gaze elsewhere
toward America.
The eastern border grows calm—
Russia breathes for one moment.
Then the cold arrives.
General Frost walks unseen
through abandoned camps.
Rifles freeze in rigid hands,
engines sleep beneath the snow.
General Winter
descends upon the invaders
with merciless breath.
White forests consume the roads
where proud armies lose their way.
Frozen silence falls—
even steel bows to the cold
across shattered fields.
The eastern gale rises still
through drifting ghost-covered plains.
Snow buries the dead,
yet memory walks onward
through the scarred white earth.
From the ruins history learns:
nature too can wage a war.
7d ago
May 28, 2026 at 2:16 AM UTC
(June–December 1941)
The Eastern Gale
Summer heat arrives—
across endless eastern plains
engines wake at dawn.
Steel columns roll toward sunrise
through wheat fields unaware.
Thunder of war breaks
over rivers, towns, and roads
beneath burning skies.
Cities fade in smoke and ash
along the advancing storm.
Europe watches still
as the eastern front unfolds
wide as history.
Fear travels through distant lands
on whispers of iron tides.
Yet within the frost
a stubborn strength gathers slow
beneath falling snow.
Winter sharpens silent breath
against the marching armies.
Frozen winds descend—
ice grips tracks and silent guns
across white forests.
Invaders falter at last
before the bitter cold.
Snow covers the fields,
yet memory walks the ground
where shadows once stood.
From the eastern gale remains
a lesson carved in endurance.
Mar 17
Mar 17, 2026 at 4:22 AM UTC