by Susana H. Case
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| A view shows a petrol station, which bears the name of New York in Donetsk Region, Ukraine March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich. See also Wikipedia. |
There is a town called New York in Ukraine.
Stalin gave it a Soviet name that didn't stick.
Many of its houses are empty,
along with the streets and parks.
Young people dream of leaving.
At the store in the town center,
they are out of bread.
In a room with balloons, a child
holds a chocolate and cherry birthday cake,
while the sound of gunfire blasts out
a few miles away. How naive we are
about power, profits—like children holding sparklers.
The few adults at the birthday party fret an errant
artillery round might hit the chemical plant.
Even in peacetime, it spits out fumes
from phenol production into the air.
The streets are worn and tired.
Oh, New York: where is your Donetsk Times Square
full of excited tourists, your skyscrapers
that cause neck aches from people looking up in awe?
Where are your people—like in that other
New York, the American one—who complain
how much they suffer because the air is chilly,
the bus ten minutes late?
Susana H. Case has authored eight books of poetry, most recently The Damage Done (Broadstone Books, 2022). Dead Shark on the N Train (Broadstone Books, 2020) won a Pinnacle Book Award for Best Poetry Book, a NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite, and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. She co-edited, with Margo Taft Stever, the anthology I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe (Milk and Cake Press, 2022).