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| @anadoluimages: A piano painted the colours of Ukrainian national flag at Independence Square in the capital Kiev. Image source: Veooz 360 |
If I knew how to play
I’d set up a grand piano
In Kiev
In Independence
Square
Right now
While it’s winter
Though each note hang on the air
Like an icicle suspended
From the frame of a burnt out bus
It would still be carried with passion
Wrung from the heart of a nightingale
I’d play every Handel and Mozart Requiem,
Every song that blows out a candle
Every thought that says THIS IS NOT A COUP
This is a cry for human rights, to let us out of this
Dictatorship, this collaboration with fascism
To deny freedom of choice, to deny free trade,
Intellect, spirit, Ukraine and Europe.
Right now
While Kiev is burning
In flames
And riot police claim lives
And protestors toss Molotov cocktails
If I could I’d sit in front of a grand piano
And each moment would pray for peace
Kathleen Sousa Capps holds a PhD in English from University of Oregon (1998). Publications in literary and academic journals, including Paideuma. Dissertation topic: Image Trouble: Pound’s People-Making as Visual Discourse. Trying to find an agent/publisher for her novel, Blackberry Woman. Because Kathleen is hearing impaired and blind, her father forbade her to learn to play the piano; he said it was a waste of time. And college is no place for women. (That’s what he said.)