In front of my living room window,
on a splendid, sunny May afternoon,
fat crow rapturously caws over its good fortune.
I watch in morbid fascination
as it tears apart a rodent.
Can’t fault the crow, a natural predator.
It studiously picks away at that small, hapless animal,
guts torn, splayed.
The next morning, not a morsel left,
not even a bloodstain, I checked the street.
Russia is tearing apart Ukraine without remorse,
destroying homes, churches, schools, hospitals,
disrupting millions, traumatizing the children,
injuring and killing civilians,
decimating infrastructure piece by piece,
ripping away the guts and sinew
of a once proud sovereign nation.
Soon it too will be left without a morsel
while the world watches from the window.
Joanne Jagoda 