Ukraine Picture

The first thing you see are the metal straps,
the packing case type glinting in low light,
used, in their first lives to secure cargo, surreptitious,
in these haunts. Now, in their second incarnation,
they become restraints of another kind, vicious,
wrapped around wrists and ankles, cutting in,
these men’s blood oozing from the razor edges slicing.
Life’s cargo, our bodies outside hold essential,
retaining our spirits.  These men, torn by war, hoping
to break free.  We wishing our flesh would hold on
long and longer still, until, bonds broken, both of us,
these tortured hostages, and we dreading mortals,
both eyeing the ladder that leads us up, them to freedom,
and our souls to breaking bonds and hearts at all we leave behind.