When I came Home to Mezyn
When I came Home to Mezyn
When I came home to Mezyn on the banks of Desna river,
no wine tasted good to me.
My mother's knitting a shawl large enough for my neck.
Dark cloud hovering over everything;
my job is not to disappear.
I shall rest a few days before
returning to trenches filled with stench of death.
The tranquil farm, the clean sheets, the pillows spread, the
home-made bread.
For long hours, wordless, I gaze outside the window,
beneath the still, grieving sky
untold species of chirping bird
in lowly yet intricate chorus
praise the natural world,
the veiny white geranium, golden-eyed lilacs, the
eyebright sun flowers, the wild strawberry, the lawn
of daffodils, cow-wheat and milkworth.
I walk my dog across the field
with slow, painstaking but staggering steps,
like an exhausted moonfarer, gloomy like
anguished blood, gripped with malice.
The moon softly creeps, I fall asleep and
wake in the middle of the night, my head filled with horror --
the mutilated bodies, the fierce firefights, the civilians piling on the
sidewalks, the starving dogs, the charred tanks. And yet, I shall be a happy man again, rifle in hand, nodding to duty, the higher calling to be free.
About this poem
a Ukrainian freedom fighter takes a break by returning to his village before resuming the fight, reflecting on his existential experience. Poem is a homage to the Ukrainian people, gleaned from the news of the atrocious war
Written on June 07, 2022
Submitted by kavehafrasiabi_1 on August 27, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 1 View
Quick analysis:
Scheme | A BCXXXXDEXXXXFXEADXXXFXBEC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,194 |
Words | 220 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 25 |
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"When I came Home to Mezyn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/137051/when-i-came-home-to-mezyn>.
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