by Bonnie Naradzay
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| Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv. Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert “intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson”, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page. The concert on 1 October was intended to feature the Gileya chamber orchestra, of which Kerpatenko was the principal conductor, but he “categorically refused to cooperate with the occupants”, the statement said. —The Guardian, October 16, 2022 |
How normal life is in Kherson,
ruled by Russian invaders since April!
A life of repression, kidnapping,
and mass detainment of its citizens.
How normal life is in Kherson!
with Russian invaders planning
a concert for the first of October
to show how normal life is in Kherson
while deporting everyone to unknown
locations from Kherson because
this is how normal life is in Kherson.
The conductor for the concert,
that the Russian invaders insisted on,
to show how normal and calm it was,
Yurii Kerpatenko, declined to take part .
So in true Soviet tradition the invaders
went to his home and murdered him,
to prove how normal life is in Kherson.
Bonnie Naradzay’s poems are scheduled for publication in Crab Creek Review, Dappled Things, and The Birmingham Poetry Review, and appear in AGNI, New Letters (Pushcart Nomination), RHINO, Kenyon Review online, Tampa Review, Florida Review online, EPOCH, Pinch (Pushcart Nomination), American Journal of Poetry, Potomac Review, The Poetry Miscellany, and other places, and her essay on friendship was published recently in the anthology Deep Beauty. She leads weekly poetry sessions in day shelters for the homeless and at a retirement center.