NT specifically asked if the author wanted to publish this poem under a pseudonym or his real name? Answer: definitely under his real name. A prisoner's request — is law for those at liberty.
To the Fratricides
Our vicious leader knows no doubts
Of all the vile and loathsome acts
He found no baser crime
And chose for us the sin of fratricide.
From thousands of throats curses poured
“Kill the Khokhols! Crush them! Kill them!
And though they are no longer our brothers
We’ll drag them into our stinking shed”
From “brotherly” cannons on residential areas...
On Vinnytsia, on Myrhorod, on Lviv
“Brotherly” rockets fly at little children,
Maiming women, killing the elderly
But what have the Ukrainians done wrong?
Why are they being killed for no reason?
What drove to white-hot rage
The basest Kremlin tsar?
They decided: “Ukraine is Europe!”
And they cannot be otherwise!
And no, not even Putin’s....
Is sweeter to them than the taste of freedom
“For after all, the state is for the person
Only in the last resort vice versa.”
And again Ukraine spoke up,
And the soldiers are forced to fight.
And because of this our mad master,
Who came into this world in an ill hour,
Is no longer as much Putin as Cain
And stains us with fratricide.
Forgive us, dear Ukraine!
Live and flourish despite Moscow.
May the viburnum always blush,
May the wide Dnipro moan and roar
And we must now and forever bear,
Like a terrible heavy yoke,
Shameful to any person,
The disgraceful brand of fratricides.
Mikhail Kriger, April 2024. Photo: Telegram channel “Freedom for Mikhail Kriger!”