How Spring Comes in Ukraine (Poem)

 

How Spring Comes in Ukraine

 

Is this how spring comes —

the neck of the sunflower

broken, vipers escaping

from behind museum glass?

 

A warm spell has followed

the first days of Lent

preceding the first days of war. 

Maria Prymachenko has stopped

making pictures.

 

In Kyiv, her yellows and blues

fall from the eyes

of two-headed chickens.

The shelling makes even

her eared beasts to lie down.

Things no longer go well

here. The villain speaks with

his claw of iron,

hobbling the painter's hand.

Her canvases aflame,

the arsonist moves west,

ash just another mark

on the foreheads of soldiers.

 

Yes, peace talks

amid the mayhem,

and lynching's finally a hate

crime in America.

 

Listen, there are rumors

of prayers.

 

Below no no-fly zone

even some Russians flee

when bombs grow instead

of flowers. 

_________________________

The last words in italics are the title of a painting by Maria Prymachenko (1909-1997), a self-taught, Ukrainian folk art painter. Some dozens of Prymachenko's paintings were destroyed when the museum in which they were housed (Ivankiv Local History Museum) was burned to the ground. See Rebecca Bengal's article "Russian Forces Destroyed the Wild and Beautiful Art of Maria Prymachenko", Vice, March 1, 2022; and Jasmine Liu, "Ukraine Accuses Russia of Burning Down a Museum", Hyperallergic, February 28, 2022.

Also see: Emily Cochrane, "Congress Gives Final Approval to Make Lynching a Hate Crime", The New York Times, March 7, 2022.