Ukraine, War Resistance, Hopes for Peace, Human Rights

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1.Sergei Eisenstein Would Be So Proud: Epic Siege Of Mariupol Which Seems To Look Lots Like Massive Grave

Stretched over 4.2 square miles, the Azovstal steel complex

is/ was a sprawling warren of rail lines, warehouses, coal furnaces, factories, chimneys

above essentially an underground city of tunnels seen as ideal for guerrilla warfare.

This Eastern Ukraine factory reportedly had more then 12,000 worker homes, schools,

movie theaters, as well as [once] hospital/maternity plus two parks allegedly include three circuses

and bunkers to withstand Western attacks then their imperialist nuclear rain.

But now today there, its past-USSR-glories boss, Mother Russia, offers no coddling

while missiles reign down on cannon fodder ferociously enough

for just maybe hopeful final bloody putsch to push Zelensky’s troops out of commission.

Czar Putin commits whatever crying-shame crimes against humanity

deemed necessary to secure subterranean labyrinths that consist of sometimes-shell-shocked patriots –

no bread left, they shoot pigeons – curled in fetal positions whilst attempting to resist

enraged Vladimir’s frantic last hundred hours; hoping/praying another evacuation convoy is dispatched

ahead of cannister incinerated, before relieved Fearful Leader can gladly declare (and go home?),

Our Annual Victory over Nazis Day!...versus simply another made-up Crimean Potemkin Village.

2.Once-Upon-A-Time Hardcore Secular Jewish Boomer Gerry Had Such Very Great Expectations

In a letter written to a friend in 1959, Flannery O’Connor lamented that some members of the clergy,

when arguing in favor of Catholic teaching on procreation, felt the need to assuage concerns about

overpopulation. “I wish various fathers would quit trying to defend it by saying that the world can

support 40 billion,” she wrote. “I will rejoice in the day when they say: This is right, whether

we all rot on top of each other or not, dear children, as we certainly may.”*

World of hurt: yet another rotten orchard a day ‘til your pip squeaks

Our grand/ children’s future seemed potentially bleak enough

What with already bad climate change plus democracy issues

But recently above got much worse when complicated

By Ukraine “Nazi” war and Supreme Court rulings

Which included Roe versus Wade leaks

That bring more babies onto this earth

Than can reasonably accommodate.

I am so sad about the pity of it all

As possible solutions shrink

Down to longer ‘n longer

Existential odds of

Johnny Appleseed

Survival – no less

Dickensianoid

Satisfaction

Happiness

–Perhaps

Aborted

Bliss?

Oy.

*Overturning Roe Will Disrupt a Lot More Than Abortion. I Can Live With That

3. Huh?

I am told by

an unreliable

source, Poles

[my grandpa

was arguably

one but he

vehemently

thought of

himself only

as a Jew;

wonder if

such colors

this slur...]

...consider

neighboring

Ukrainians —

the same folks

we now find

so heroic –

thugs.

How ‘bout that?

4.Mariupol military might (maybe?) haiku

land, sea, air, cyber,

special forces —> to end siege

use tactical nuke?

5.Ukraine raison d'etre haiku

Putin exploiting

miniscule number Sieg Heilers

–oy, so over it

About the Author

Gerard Sarnat

Gerard Sarnat has been nominated for the pending 2022 Science Fiction Poetry Association Dwarf Star Award, won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest, the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of 2021 and previous Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. Gerry is widely published including in 2022 Awakenings Review, 2022 Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County Celebration, 2022 Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology, The Font, BigCityLit, HitchLit Review, Lowestoft, Washington Square Review, The Deronda Review, Jewish Writing Project, Hong Kong Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Buddhist Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Arkansas Review, Hamilton-Stone Review, Northampton Review, New Haven Poetry Institute, Texas Review, Vonnegut Journal, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, Monterey Poetry Review, The Los Angeles Review, and The New York Times as well as by NYU, Slippery Rock, Northwestern, Pomona, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, North Dakota, McMaster, Maine, University of British Columbia and University of Chicago and University of Virginia presses. He is a Harvard College and Medical School-trained physician who’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized as well as a Stanford professor and healthcare CEO.Currently he is devoting energy/ resources to deal with climate justice, and serves on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with progeny consisting of four collections (Homeless Chronicles: From Abraham To Burning Man, Disputes, 17s, Melting the Ice King) plus three kids/ six grandsons — and is looking forward to potential future granddaughters.