The Letter

You called it rude, offensive to your age,

All bluster and pride on your Kremlin throne,

Playing innocent and righteous, like a sage

When you stand in the pool of Ukrainian blood.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

He mentioned your years in power. How many terms?

The Russian constitution bent once, then bent again,

The third time "zeroed out" and folded like a paper man.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

You turned the table and played your dirty conman trick

by calling him the one without a legitimate mandate as

Ukraine could not hold the election while fighting your hordes.

You sent them to your war of choice and brutal aggression

It is now longer than the one you call the "Great Patriotic War."

You don't know how to end it without being brought to The Hague.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

He bristled you with dates. The years named plainly.

Years in power, not your physical age.

But you still got offended and said

There are many statesmen older than you

And they still rule their countries.

You dressed the wound in accusations because

The author of that letter got under your skin.

You have not once uttered Zelenskyy's name.

It's your old KGB trick: strip the person of the name

As if it takes away their humanity, diminishes them.

You did that to Navalny and many others you fear.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

You said the tone was wrong. The letter rude.

Not the rubble. Not the bodies in the fields.

Not the cities destroyed with your shells,

not the number of the dead, wounded and maimed.

Only this: a man who used his powerful words

and asked, decisively, for a place to meet.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

Decisiveness, it seems, was the provocation.

Peace was what offended you the most.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

Not through insult.

Not through mockery.

Not through spite.

But through a ceasefire offer you refused,

through years in power you could not excuse,

the Truth that no lies and spin can thin.

The author of that letter got under your skin.

***

For full context: This is the actual response Putin gave during the St.Petesburgh's International Economic Forum panel to Zelenskyy's open letter suggesting they should meet one on one for peace talks: