Based on CNN Reporting: “Drone video team turns
the tables on hiding Russian vehicle”
There was no staging what bombs have destroyed
in my grandparents’ Ukraine. This Armageddon.
The ash thickens the air, settles deep in the lungs.
No one pretends to be a corpse shot or run over
by a tank, lies down on a road, and makes blood
pool on pavement. A person can’t partially bury
himself in sand and claim, See what they have done.
There aren’t enough coffins and body bags to empty
the streets. There aren’t enough people to pull dead
from the rubble, bury, mark each grave.
Those who stay have no home, no heat, no food,
no water. Their days are numbered. They cry
before a camera and beg for these atrocities to end.
Drone footage captures how Z tanks hidden in forest aim, fire,
murder more innocent. How Russian soldiers drag away
the lifeless, loot them, discard bodies like unwanted trash.
This footage disturbs, speaks truth.
Nancy Manning graduated last May with an MFA in poetry from Southern Connecticut State University. Her poems and short stories have appeared in an eclectic mix of literary journals. Nancy's collections of poems include the recent The Unspoken Of Our Days from Antrim House Books and Amethyst Garden from Jasmin Press; her YA novel is entitled Undertow of Silence. Nancy is also a high school English teacher.