Z

[Kenneth2816]

You can tell it's Spring by the few
green hairs that stubble a crotch
between asphalt and sidewalk,
subsisting on the meager dust
packed in over the years.I raise

a glass to their tenacity, want to
erect a steel cage for protection
from careless feet, cigarette butts.
In Ukraine it's raining missles and
flechette darts. Farmers turn the soil,
tow Russian tanks with tractors.

They say a child walked six hundred
miles to the Polish border, clutching
a stuffed animal, crying all the way,
without so much as a proper cabbage.

[BobBradshaw]

I almost winced when I saw another poem with a plant emerging in a sidewalk's crack. But then you made the image fresh. It's fine. No crits. It's true that the child tugs at our sympathies. Yet the poem doesn't have the impact I wanted. I suspect others will find it works well.

[Kenneth2816]

Thanks for a careful read and thoughtful comment.
There have been a million poems about Ukraine.
I enjoyed writing it.

[Michael (MV)]

Hi Kenneth,

I like the way the poem turns topical and treats the theme: tenacity.




Michael (MV)

You can tell it's Spring by the few
green hairs that stubble a crotch
between asphalt and sidewalk,
subsisting on the meager dust
packed in over the years.I raise

a glass to their tenacity, want to
erect a steel cage for protection
from careless feet, cigarette butts.
In Ukraine it's raining missles and
flechette darts. Farmers turn the soil,
tow Russian tanks with tractors.

They say a child walked six hundred
miles to the Polish border, clutching
a stuffed animal, crying all the way,
without so much as a proper cabbage.

[Kenneth2816]

Thanks Michael

[JohnBRiley]

I like how the poem turns as well. Moving from life struggling to be in a sidewalk crack to life struggling to be in war is effective.

[Kenneth2816]

Thanks John. Good to see you here.