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      February 25, 2024Two years later.Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

      The last thing I want is another poem
      about war and dead children and how
      we’ve forgotten their names.
      My children are learning to count: bones
       
      and wars and dead children and how
      many days are left, Now? they ask, now?
      My children are learning to count bones—
      twenty-seven in the hand, twenty-two in the skull.
       
      Many days are left now. They ask, now?
      The last thing I want is to imagine them dead,
      twenty-seven, twenty-two, their hands, their skulls.
      I keep counting to make sure they’re all there.
       
      The last thing I want is to imagine the dead
      we’ve forgotten. Their names,
      I keep counting to make sure. They’re all there.
      The last thing I want is another poem.

      from Poets Respond

      Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

      “I’m at a loss for words for the continued violence against Ukraine, my birthplace. And yet, I keep finding more insufficient ones. I keep turning to form to provide some semblance of order amid atrocity that resists sense or comprehension. War analysts thought Kyiv would fall in two days, but February 24th marked two years. Two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion and still, Ukraine remains standing. Two years of fight, resistance, and endurance. If you are able, please consider contributing to an aid organization that helps those who are in Ukraine and refugees trying to flee. I recommend Ukraine TrustChain. An all volunteer-run nonprofit started by Ukrainian immigrants in the U.S., they work with local volunteers on the ground, going directly into areas hard to reach by larger international organizations. TrustChain provides urgent food, medical supplies, and transportation to safer regions. Poetry is often criticized for making nothing happen in the real world, but poetry has raised thousands of dollars for Ukraine. You reading this poem and asking questions about the global violence that continues is the beginning of action.”

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