Bodies in the street

Bodies in the street

The last touch

                Before they left the universe;

The last touch

                Before they are gone forever,

Was the frozen hard ground.

Bodies abandoned

                In the street

                                With no-one to care,

No-one to provide that final embrace.

Left to freeze

                In the icy street

                                With no warmth

In those last seconds;

                No human touch

                                No final goodbye.

Opher – 13.3.2022

I wrote this in response to the scenes of Russian soldiers left strewn across a city street, abandoned and uncared for.

Their body heat seeps into the ground until they become frozen lifeless lumps of meat.

They, and the thousands of Ukrainian citizens and soldiers killed by the Russians, were disposed of in mass graves dug by machines.

Death has lost all humanity.

Poetry – Why?

Why?

Why?

Is it the same every time?

Why?

The bodies in the streets?

Why?

The rape, torture and looting?

Why?

The wanton destruction?

Young men with licence to kill.

                Terrified out of their wits.

                                Full of bravado.

Beyond the law.

                Without restrictions.

                                Witnessing horror.

Familiar with death.

                Exacting revenge.

                                Following orders.

Why?

Are human minds so fragile?

Why?

They break into a million shards?

Why?

They release their demons?

Why?

They tear the world to shreds?

Opher – 5.4.2022

These young men are ordered into hell. They witness death close up. They see their comrades wounded and killed.

Directed to kill, trained to be emotionally cold. Freed of all morality. Full of terror and revenge. Told of the evils of the enemy. Full of propaganda.

A human mind can only stand so much. Minds are fragile. They break. Minds cannot stand this type of trauma.

War destroys everyone from the emotional suppression, the traumatised madness and the violent behaviour.

It’s no wonder that so many soldiers take their own lives.