by Jesse Dukes
Written on the Eve of the Invasion of Kyiv
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| A dead Russian soldier in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Credit: Tyler Hicks, The New York Times. |
I believe you know right from wrong. Go back.
You polish your boots, oil your gun.
Watch dispatches from your blue-eyed master.
Brew tea with thyme in your uncle’s samovar.
Brought back from Afghanistan, in dead of winter.
Better drink it now, while it’s still warm.
It is cold in Donetsk. In your uncle’s house, it’s warm.
Do you think marching west will bring glory back?
Renew a once terrible empire, melt Russian winter?
Will you do something useful with that gun?
Nikita knew to stay close to the samovar
Who is more clever, master or Man?
You are a man who needs no master.
Your uncle’s house is already warm .
You have tea, lemon, an ancient samovar.
You have Tolstoy, Checkov, Lermontov. Back
Home, you have a madman. On your mantle, he’s placed a gun.
He’s sent you to Ukraine in winter
But you are the French at Borodino, fighting the winter.
You are the Germans in Stalingrad, sent by their master.
Too far from home never firing their guns.
Dying forgetting the comfort of warmth.
Ukraine is no enemy. You can still go back
Find your uncle, fire the stove, fill his samovar.
You know the story, Vasily leaves the Samovar.
Plunges back into the very teeth of winter.
And when he realizes his danger, it’s too late to turn back.
And what kind of master would leave a man
Stranded in the cold, without a way to stay warm?
Do you mean to kill winter with a gun?
You still have a choice. The gun
May yet stay on the mantle. The samovar
May yet fill the house with steam and warmth.
You and your fellow soldiers cannot defeat winter.
But you can defeat your master, just a man.
You still have a choice. Go Back
Stay warm despite the winter.
Heat the samovar, heed no master
Take your gun and go back.
Author’s Note: I wrote this over dinner last night, thinking about Tolstoy's Master and Man, and "Checkov's Gun". I love Russian culture, Russian history, and the Russian people I've met, and I hope they'll find their way to the right path.
Jesse Dukes is a Senior Producer of Podcasts at WBEZ, Chicago Public Media. Twitter: @CuriousDukes
