The technique of infamy is to start two lies at once and get people arguing heatedly over which is the truth.
Ezra Pound
After being firmly gripped
by the paws of a pandemic,
just a year ago, it seemed
to me, we were very ready
to play games, have fun,
to dance, to let winter slip
away to music light & sun,
but in Kremlin, hidden, sat
a lonely man, who had fed
himself on dreams of fame
& glory, a fearful man who
wanted to be feared, a man
with playthings; toys to prove
his fading manhood, guns,
bombs & missiles, murder
tools; he invited us to play
the games where only he
would be the judge; and
blinded by the sun we took
to arms, we played along,
because despite the spring
we had to let the cannons
sing, we have to save the
hope we felt those days
when the pandemic was
coming to a timely end.
Kinder Album
Today the poetics prompt at dVerse is hosted by Lisa, and the theme is about playing. I remember that playing among children could be cruel.
March 7, 2023
Björn Rudbergs writings 
“because despite the spring we had to let the cannons
sing,” .. this is incredibly powerful writing, Bjorn! So poignant and apt and telling! 💙💙
Very insightful assessment of the “lonely man, sitting hidden in the Kremlin.” Perhaps he was one bullied in the schoolyard — or maybe he was a bully from the beginning? However he got to where he is, his monstrous acts need snuffing asap.
That quote rings so true in the present times. Time this madness stopped.
“because despite the spring
we had to let the cannons
sing,” – very poignant and painful lines; I remember as children we would sometimes play-pretend a game called war, with sticks as guns and similar. Children now, from what I observe around me at least, play like that less and I wish the reality was less war too.
Love what you did with this, perhaps Putin was the boy who had no friends and had to prove himself ❤
So powerful, your poem, and I would that Putin’s playthings would power down and go to sleep… and that all his playmates would leave the game.
Such a little man in so many ways…(K)
This was wonderful. It made me also think of how the politics here in Florida are like this. It may not be the Kremlin but now we may have to register to blog if we want to say political things. Yes, it is not worse than war, but it still pulls a community apart.
Power writing, Bjorn. “despite the spring / we had to let the cannons / sing, we have to save the /hope we felt those days..” – beautiful. And so applicable to all the horrible theatres of war around the world. Despite the spring.. wow!
I enjoyed reading this, Bjorn. I’ll claim the last bit, COVID. I’ve had two shots, two boosters, and still picked it up on a cruise ship of all places. That was March 2022, Mrs. Jim and I were both quarantined for the last of the ship and then five more days at a motel in Portsmouth, U.K. People weren’t masking in the elevators.
..
But I think because of the shots and booster you were never very ill….
A very sad game indeed! Not one played by any rules, just death and destruction for participants on both sides, leaving mothers and lovers to cry for their loss.
I loved that quote! Your poem speaks the truth, Björn. Some men just want to watch the world burn.