In Mariupol We Bury Our Dead

 

In Mariupol We Bury our Dead

Mariupol is in a "disaster phase now,"

Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator says

                                                – (CNN News Service)

 

We bury our war dead in mass graves

trenches long and straight we dug

as though we were laying a foundation.

What edifice could stand

On such a foundation?

 

Their breath was banished,

limbs lifeless,

souls now parted

whose physical imprints

line tombs of necessity.

 

The earth will receive their bodies,

our people will hold them in memory

when the fighting ceases

and we have space to grieve.

 

3/22                                    ~ Charles Kinnaird

 

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Photo: Detail from  AP Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka: Dead bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022, as people cannot bury their dead because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces.

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