The Ukraine rain fell long and hard
From clouds above on high,
But what were shed
Were tears of red
To spill on fields awry.
As storms of rage passed o'er the land
A horseman through it rode.
A black horse day
Of wild dismay
As floods of red rain flowed.
Neath the yellow and the blue
The Ukraine rain poured on,
It steeped the ground
For miles around
And harvest yield was gone.
As people cried and people died,
The pain of rain aflame;
With nought to eat
The yellow wheat
Was plundered beyond shame
And all about the crippled souls
Wept through blood red eyes
As once again
The Ukraine rain
Screamed down from blood red skies.
Ukraine Rain (the Holodomore 1932-33)
Alan S Jeeves
Poet's note: Inspired by the book 'Red Famine' by Anne Applebaum. Her 2017 work was awarded the Lionel Gelber Prize and also the Duff Cooper Prize. The book itself is well worth reading if only to preserve the memory of the 4.5 million (Applebaum's estimate) souls who starved to death during the 'Holodomore'. Therefore I writ this poem for them. As Duff Cooper himself famously said "Old men forget"
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Poem topics: horse, pain, wild, blue, long, hard, black, shame, high, Valentine's Day, people, yellow, ukraine, red, rain, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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