The rain that day…
an open wound — bleeding
in ferocious silence.
We imagined Kyiev,
a widow raped,
until
the tanks ran out of gas.
Three years later,
by treason
the tanks may move again.
Why let
such silence rule?
Today we will be working with hook-lines to start a poem at dVerse hosted by Kim. I hope my first three lines captured my emotions in those first days of the Russian attack on Kyiev.
April 29, 2025
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Sad times.
Alas alas… but let us not stay silent
First poem of the evening and I’m hooked, Björn! Nothing like a powerful image with an oxymoron to get my attention, and you kept it. The shock is in the second stanza with Kyiv as a raped widow.
Thank you… and thankfully it didn’t go as bad as we all feared…. but still it’s bad.
This is absolutely stellar writing here, Bjorn! I too, was hooked by the opening line.
The second stanza is raw and poignant. I can’t even imagine .. the pain, the loss during those first days of the Russian attack on Kyiev 😦
It never reached Kyiev but we know what would have happened from the suburbs.
A powerful poem!
Thank you
Engaging hook lind opening
Luv the image
much♡love
First stanza is stunning and sets the mood. I felt sadness all over again because of what happened. The silence though is repressive because I am aware that much fighting is done underground. Good one Bjorn.
Powerful opening line, great follow through to a snapshot of our time
Why indeed? Let ‘er rip, friend.
It’s an ongoing nightmare that didn’t need to be except for one man’s mad ambition and lust for power.
Two men maybe
powerful and depressing and true ~
Yes, alas and thanks
Well…I really felt that piece, very much…..powerful..powerless…so true…so interesting that it seemed to somehow run just right, after my own thoughts.
That day more than three years ago I still remember….
I also remember being surprised of how much it really failed.
Björn, I feel the opening hits like shrapnel—quiet yet brutal.
~David
It was a day that shocked me….
Me and my wife too. She was near Ukraine at the time – in Moldova.
Ferocious silence, not only an oxymoron, as Kim says, but also a somatic reality that I have experienced (and still do, unless I pour on the antidote).
But there I go again, reading the political as personal…!
A horrible time. I’m upset that the current government of my country is letting the atrocities continue.
Absolutely agree.
Sadness 😞
A poignant, powerful verse, Bjorn~
A strong voice rising against the warmonger!
A strong opening and a contemplative ending. sigh…
A very strong and poignant hook with your first stanza, Bjorn!
Your opening lines bring it all back, and the wounds it has left are still bleeding indeed, and seem like perhaps they will never heal. The world is suddenly upside down and broken, and never more so than in the landscape your poem occupies.
The war in Ukraine is so much on my mind… it is so very close, and bring back memories from the cold war.
yes, powerful opening lines … and yes, sad times continue. 😦
Powerful poem, Bjorn!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Bjorn, your hook line poem overwhelmed ~ will it ever end. OR it will never end.
You clocked us with those opening lines, Björn. The world is “bleeding/in ferocious silence” in too many places around the world, as if one isn’t enough.