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Small boy in Bucha:
This is only a special operation
I had a toy rabbit
A project of denazification
Mama said don’t look
Ukraine must be stripped
They shoot for no reason
In order to be subdued
It’s only a short walk
Fascists must be eradicated
In the car, we’ll be safe
We will infiltrate and exhaust them
Mama ran but tripped
This is our sphere of influence
By a broken door a Russian soldier
We will purge their ranks
In the shelling I stopped short, hid
We can immobilise you
My hands covered my ears
We will tie your hands
But you can’t stop your eyes from seeing
And so we have our way
So still, I heard her screams
It is you who encroached on us
And the shots that made her stop
Crimes a figment of your imagination
Then they came looking for me
As we obliterate a nation, we do not target civilians
In the rubble, I played dead
Yet you cancel our great Russian culture
My rabbit was buried
We have ballet, we have Pushkin!
They don’t bury anybody, not ours or theirs
We have bullets, we have Putin!
Darkness so long, I finally went to find mama
We have nuclear options too
Behind the door she lay, arms out, not quite right
Yet you seize our yachts and villas
What is this rule of law?
I could not see her face, I could not
We decry your cynical lies
I hid in the woods until Ukrainians came
We are always ready to negotiate
They gave me water and black bread
For our long term security, which is paramount
And a blue and yellow blanket
For our total domination, we will choose
Now I am here
There is no truth, only fake news
And I so miss my mama
As ever we win, with our great Russian fiction
Who do you think has the last word?
Lesia Daria
Composed: April 2022, following the atrocities in Bucha and Irpin, Ukraine
Published: September 2022 Cambridge Journal of Politics, Law and Art