By John Michael Gorrindo
Threnody for the People of Ukraine
Song Cycle
Abandoned by my conscious mind
Remember me, remember me
In all my glory
My forgotten story
The night watchmen’s rounds encircle town
To Arms! To Arms!
The Sirens sound
The sky’s no shield!
The rockets reel!
The sky’s afright with shafts of light!
To Arms! To Arms!
The Sirens sound
An anceint rhyme of blood maligned once sacred night:
Arrive the headstone gouged from bone
History’s gall would spite us all
Onward bleed, no never freed
So thousands’ days or more enslaved
One murderous man’s miasmic plan
To spill his bile from ruptured spleen
Once unlucky precious few
It is time to learn anew!
Polished shoes we'll have you wear
You are all now orphans spared!
Now you see your lot is cast
Cross the border war is past
Fortune's child's no longer torn
In the mother land reborn
Parents you have never known
Come to love and take you home
Teach you now a nobler tongue
Mother Russia's better sung
An accident of history so our fate?
How does a good God do us here locate?
Colateral the damage victim-fed
War’s casualties are murdered not just dead
On vast flat lands at crossroads of two foes
Who pin us underwing their one-eyed crows
With outstretched necks like vipers set to strike
Across our heads that prey on us like shrikes
Leave us be! Leave us be! We’re sovereign! Declared as free!
Leave us be! Leave us be! We’re sovereign! Declared as free!
The innocents are crushed beneath the wheels
Of armored phalanx and the jack boot heels
Invading armies prey on innocence
Is owed them in their twisted minds of spite
To survive
To survive
It must go
It must go
What is to survive
Must go underground
Underground
If history
If heritage
Are to survive
All art must go
Go underground!
Empty the museum
Unhook! Wrap! And Stash!
Sandbag the statues in the square
Odessa is surrounded now!
To survive
To survive
They must go
They must go
Who is to survive
Must go underground
Underground
Children to the basement first
Online studies lamp lights glow
Parents dread
Perhaps their final days
Elders pray underground
MAN: I love you lady mine, my heart breaks so in kind
MAN: I will be trained, a soldier I need be
WIFE: You gentle soul, a teacher who honors peace Of guns and bullets you know the least
MAN: Like my students, I shall be trained A soldier I must be The existential threat rains fire and death If I must lose my life it’s you I do protect
WIFE: Resigned you speak in terror’s wake When do you go? For my life’s sake?
DUO: Courage, courage, does not rise Without the fear where dread takes guise (not in disguise) (where) dread takes guise (not in disguise) (our) Hearts of courage beat in time (as one in time) Fate calls the tune as history rhymes Trodding trenches, heads down low Muzzle pointed, breath controlled The armored column pray arrives How bleak this war-torn countryside
WIFE: If they attack once you are gone Destroy our home and raze the dawn Our parents I will help survive To Poland we shall flee the tide
DUO: Courage, courage, does not rise Without the fear where dread takes guise Hearts of courage beat in time Fate calls the tune as history rhymes
MAN: Centuries-old the yoke was worn By Ukraine till I too was born First steps together we did take Together still when all’s at stake
DUO: Courage, courage, does not rise Without the fear where dread takes guise Hearts of courage beat in time Fate calls the tune as history rhymes