Poetry Versus Missiles - the Ukraine

"LEt have the guns, we have the poetry. We will win in the end." HOward Zinn

Prayer by Artur Dron’

Translated from the Ukrainian by Yuliya Musakovska

With the swimmers, swim,
with the travellers, travel,
as they say in church.

With the one who was raped
and is expecting a child,
breathe, breathe, breathe.
With the child whose hair has gone grey,
prepare a backpack for school.

With the frostbitten, freeze,
with the shellshocked, vomit in the trench.
With the tank commander,
who’s been missing since October,
be found, be pieced together
from scattered body parts.
Consecrated particles
as they say in church.

And also be
with the one who eats pot noodles with cold water;
with the one who was captured but will never talk;
with the one who was conceived
but didn’t get born.
And be with the one
who didn’t get to give birth.

And also be
with the two girls
somewhere in the Rivne region, do you remember?
We were driving to the east, in a convoy,
and they stood watching at the roadside,
and put their hands on their hearts.

And then I understood everything.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/13/ukraine-literary-festival-bookforum-russian-attack-artur-dron

My Mother by Claude McKay

My Mother

Reg wished me to go with him to the field,
I paused because I did not want to go;
But in her quiet way she made me yield
Reluctantly, for she was breathing low.
Her hand she slowly lifted from her lap
And, smiling sadly in the old sweet way,
She pointed to the nail where hung my cap.
Her eyes said: I shall last another day.
But scarcely had we reached the distant place,
When o’er the hills we heard a faint bell ringing;
A boy came running up with frightened face;
We knew the fatal news that he was bringing.
I heard him listlessly, without a moan,
Although the only one I loved was gone.

II

The dawn departs, the morning is begun,
The trades come whispering from off the seas,
The fields of corn are golden in the sun,
The dark-brown tassels fluttering in the breeze;
The bell is sounding and the children pass,
Frog-leaping, skipping, shouting, laughing shrill,
Down the red road, over the pasture-grass,
Up to the school-house crumbling on the hill.
The older folk are at their peaceful toil,
Some pulling up the weeds, some plucking corn,
And others breaking up the sun-baked soil.
Float, faintly-scented breeze, at early morn
Over the earth where mortals sow and reap –
Beneath its breast my mother lies asleep.

As a protest against white racism about African hypersexuality McKay wrote in 1920, "Why this obscene maniacal outburst about the sex vitality of black men in a proletarian paper? Rape is rape; the colour of the skin doesn't make it different. Negroes are no more over-sexed than Caucasians; mulatto children in the West Indies and America were not the result of parthenogenesis. If Negro troops had syphilis, they contracted it from the white and yellow races. As for German women, in their economic plight, they were selling themselves to anyone. I do not protest because I happen to be a Negro... I write because I feel that the ultimate result of your propaganda will be further strife and blood-spilling between whites and the many members of my race... who have been dumped down on the English docks since the ending of the European war..."

Plastic Straws Out Of Government

According to the Guardian The Madman on the Potomac has vowed to reverse Joe Biden’s plan to phase out plastic straws across the US government, complaining that paper alternatives don’t work and that a move is needed to go “BACK TO PLASTIC! Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!”

A well-known Diet Coke addict their President had a new red button installed in the Oval Office to inform his staffers than the Commandeer-In-Chief needs his can of Diet Coke. No plastic bottles. Woe to the lowly apprentice who fails to please the Orange Messiah.

Personally I don't drink Diet Coke or any sodas, except for Seagrams Ginger Ale from a can and also without a straw. My only advice to Trump. Stop tonguing the straws.

ps New Anti-Trump strategy - mail used straws to the White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

Return address any known MAGA citizens

It's the small things that add up.

read the article here.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/08/trump-plastic-straws