We Shine a Light for Kyiv

We shine a light for Chernihiv

and for Chernobyl

We shine a light for the woman from Kyiv packing her car

with her 11 year old son

and then driving nonstop

to her parents house in the deep countryside of Ukraine,

Her 11 year old

who can’t stop

shaking.

They arrive and eat borsch under the mulberry tree

and her father won’t let go

of her sons hand.

We shine a light for the the man who didn’t get into the railway tunnel in time and whose face

is now shattered

with glass.

We shine a light for the refugees fleeing to Poland.

We shine a light for 50-year-old Alexander, who was manning a makeshift barricade at the entrance to one village with a group of other locals,

brandishing whatever weapons they had.

He said:

“Of course, if it’s a tank, in this terrain there’s nothing we can do and we need to run.

But if it’s anything less than a tank,

we will fight,”

Jesus of the Transfiguration.

Jesus of the Sorrows.

You knew what is was to feel beauty,

face fear

and then walk back into the fire.

Help us to hold fast to that which is good

And to believe in the ancient truth

that the light shines in the darkness

and that the darkness cannot

(they say as they watch the sun set in the branches of the mulberry tree)

overcome

the light.