A poem about the war in Ukraine

by, Simon Armitage – National Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

It’s war again: a family

   carries its family out of a pranged house

      under a burning thatch.

The next scene smacks

   of archive newsreel: platforms and trains

      (never again, never again),

toddlers passed

   over heads and shoulders, lifetimes stowed

      in luggage racks.

It’s war again: unmistakable smoke

   on the near horizon mistaken

      for thick fog. Fingers crossed.

An old blue tractor

   tows an armoured tank

      into no-man’s land.

It’s the ceasefire hour: godspeed the columns

   of winter coats and fur-lined hoods,

      the high-wire walk

over buckled bridges

   managing cases and bags,

      balancing west and east – godspeed.

It’s war again: the woman in black

   gives sunflower seeds to the soldier, insists

      his marrow will nourish

the national flower. In dreams

   let bullets be birds, let cluster bombs

      burst into flocks.

False news is news

   with the pity

      edited out. It’s war again:

an air-raid siren can’t fully mute

   the cathedral bells –

      let’s call that hope.

Simon Armitage (National Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom)