For the people of Ukraine & the People in Russia & all over this world who do not want this war, this murder, this brutality, this big bloody boot of dictatorship Putin embodies The poet, Anna Akhmatova, reflecting on perseverance and luck in the face of governmental persecution orchestrating violence and deprivation against so many who would not survive Beyond misery and madness, beyond blitzes, tartars & prayers for death, my life dissolving autobiography infinitely interchangeable along time's constant zeitgeist, the radium of amnesia killing memory until, by surprise, posthumous breaths again stoke the vision, refute evidence of destruction: TB, blacklisting, the beloveds taken away... What is this, this something which twitches like a cat or snow slowly fanning to reveal, in clear moments, Leningrad rooftops? Hands, gazes, embrace chocolate earth, the rich silt massaged and tossed forth toward a sky bursting titanium. Dark flakes hit the whiter, a mixed squall against blue—— Knowledge, experience outlasting all which sought to drive spirits down, & succeeding in part with the encampment of skin... Here survival is not virtuous, but a fact which nearly refrains from rejoicing yet does not does not for the soul is an oath swearing to witness (water) the sting of strife (in the lungs) and still (with whatever voice is left) sing
