Once Upon a Time Poems

Lamentation for the Crew of Kursk

A crew of one hundred eighteen
Trapped in a war machine...
In hours of exigency,
The aids of emergency,
The six billion’s plea
A united operation...
But the powers that be
Refused a possible salvation.
To a stone one cannot teach,
Neither can heavens preach.
Nature here is not to blame.
Honor is tarnished. Shame!

Who are the living, who are the dead?
You conceal and drown in oceans
What cannot be said
For threadbare reasons...
Maneuver of the mighty,
Twisting men slowly,
Out of their breath...
In agony, to death...
Nature here is not to blame,
To those tainted ones, Shame!

Pressure as oppressive as the water
Men were caged, mastered over.
Matters of lives, the liquid grave...
That raging indifference in the plan...
The mysteries of war
Worthier than the dying men.
Now this madness hides with them,
Cheap secrets lie with them.
Don’t tell me nature is to blame,
But murderous indifference. Shame!

Evil has grown not gone
The dragon we’ll never tame
This torment will live on
As long as war is a game.
Kursk was the nightmare,
Kursk was the hell...
Inside it humanity’s pain
Will dwell.
Don’t tell me nature is to blame.
An offense to us all! Shame!