The Damned of Donbas

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Damned of Donbas

 

Remember the Trail of Tears

Remember the forced removal

Of the Cherokee from their native lands

Remember the long march from Tennessee

To the unwanted lands of Oklahoma

Remember the cries of white folks

As they stood along the path

And gave the trail its name

It would be a hundred years before

We called it what it was: genocide

 

History is repeated time and time again

A people uprooted from their native lands

Are severed from their ways of life

Broke and scattered they must rebuild

Their lives from the ground up

 

It has happened many times since

It is happening again in Ukraine

The people of the Donbas region

Are uprooted and scattered in a thousand

Different directions from Mongolia

To an obscure island in the Pacific

 

Those who profess love of Russia

May be permitted to stay

Those who stand by Ukraine

Are tossed about like dry leaves

In seven strong winds

 

There is a word for this crime

Against humanity

A word we must speak aloud

And never forget:

Genocide

 

The perpetrators of this crime

Must pay the price

They must live their remaining days

On earth as the damned of Donbas