A Poem for Ukraine and the Whole Agonized World

At the Frontier

Above the fighter jet,

There is an azure dome;

Below, the golden steppe

Waves heedless of the chrome.

Another needy alpha

Invades the dream of peace;

Himself his maranatha,

He wills geographies.

How does it go? Defunct

The KGB and still

The boy thrills to the trump

Of spies who like to kill.

He doesn’t need the silver,

Betraying history:

This strong man gets his shivers

By punching mystery.

Just like the good old days

Within Lubyanka holes,

Ambitious to ukase

A gulag for all souls.

Once Russia could intone

The Dostoevsky plea:

We’re guilty for each one

Before each one, so see

How hell’s dominion can

Be thwarted by a kiss,

A kiss of peace that spans

The distance to all bliss.

For power to pity makes

The alpha go omega,

And falls in balming flakes

Of hush upon vendetta.

Resist the tyrants, so

We must, we still must watch

Our archipelago

Of self-absolving dodge.

There’s blue above the bombs,

A golden age beneath;

May screams give way to psalms

For Love’s unwinding wreath.