Kiev From Afar

View of the city with the Pivdennyi bridge. I used two hues, yellow on the bottom and blue on top. When they mix, they produce an amazing gray. I am always surprised by what humans are capable of doing to each other in the name of religion and ideology. -Moh’d Bilbeisi (used with permission)

Each new day that passes

More innocents will die

Revenge upon the masses

As we stand still, idly by

Who can begin to stand it

Watch the image cross the screen

Will we dare to confront it

So venomous, so extreme

I have a very simple question

Rattlin’ around this simple head

What good is truth and vision

When we cannot free the dead

Pray and think as we might do

Is there no action we can take

As the victims cry for rescue

Are we simply too afraid

Our lives might then be threatened

Their war become our own

“But for the grace that we’ve been given”

Echoes hollow in our homes

I have a very simple question

Rattlin’ around this simple head

What good is truth and vision

When we cannot free the dead

If not us, then who will stand

If not now, exactly when

If not there, where is the passion

For this nation and its land

We cry out “Democracy!”

All for one, and one for all

Until we think that we might see

Looming rusted iron walls

I have a very simple question

Rattlin’ around this simple head

What good is truth and vision

When we cannot free the dead

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Copyright © 2022, Robert G. Metivier. and Moh’d Bilbeisi. All Rights Reserved.

Originally published in Medium on 3.15.22