Happy Birthday, Taras: Letters from Kyiv
A poem honoring Taras Shevchenko on his birthday during Russia-Ukraine War
You have left your mark everywhere here, Taras
I see your name on streets and buildings throughout
A University in your name greets me daily
As I stroll along a tree lined boulevard in your name
Yet, we barely know you in lands across seas
Suppressed by imperialism censors and rarely translated
They gave rise to their authors whom we all know
Somehow you got lost and left behind for only your people
Now, my friend, they are dying in villages, cities and streets
As your Testament written oh so long ago
So many now buried not in mounds but frosted snow
But the blood of foes runs deeper on your soil
For your people are rising up against a Goliath foe
Beating back those who once they called brothers
While all mothers cry as their children all fall
Beneath bombs, missiles, rockets in this awful maul
Yet the Dnipro still flows quietly by the place where you lie
Your land the world now sees and finally asks why
No hands but your brethren and a few foreign soldiers
Stand on the ground and beat back hell’s hounds
Who come with their weapons and attack in the night
Ukraine’s story you so long ago told is now coming round
No longer to speak quietly be for the whole world to see
So on your birthday, we all honor you
With pen, with sword, reading again your wise words
