HOPE by Gypsy Taub

HOPE

by Gypsy Taub

Hope, where can I find you

When my world is dark?

When the wind blows out

The very last spark?

 

How can I hear you

Calling my name

When I'm lost in despair

And imprisoned by shame?

 

Hope, where do you go

When the war begins?

When my heart freezes up

And my head spins?

 

How do you survive

The missile, the bomb

As they explode

Where once was my home?

 

I was 5 years old.

It was like paradise:

My Ukrainian grandma

With the love in her eyes.

 

Sweet scent of white jasmine

Saturated our street,

As we played with our cousins

In the rain, in the heat.

 

My little sister and I

Will never forget

The happiest summer

That we've ever had.

 

I'm ashamed to be Russian,

I feel such disdain

For the war that our soldiers

Wage in the Ukraine.

 

My brothers and sisters

Are tortured and raped,

And brutally murdered

With unspeakable hate.

 

How can I repay

My unpayable debt

As my so-called president

Makes a nuclear threat?

 

 

The screams of the children

Tear me apart.

They pierce my soul

And shatter my heart.

 

How can I stop

This terror and pain

In the land of my childhood,

In my dear Ukraine?

 

When I call my cousins

What can I say

To make them feel better,

To brighten their day?

 

How can I stop this tragedy

In this day and age?

How can I heal

My unspeakable rage?

 

How can we survive this?

How can we forgive?

Where do we find courage

To continue to live?

 

Who is winning this battle?

How do we keeps score

Of the lost and the broken

On both sides of this war?

 

As we watch the atrocities,

As we hate, as we blame

We are all just reflecting

A close-up of the flag

Description automatically generated with medium confidenceEach other's pain.

 

Our hearts get infected

And filled up with puss.

There's a Christ and a Satan

In each one of us.

 

Blame doesn't offer solutions,

Nor bring a war to an end.

Be it defeat or victory -

Broken heart will not mend.

 

War will go on forever,

Until all of us learn

To love every child

Who has ever been born.

 

 

Every child, regardless

Of what they became,

Of how much hurt they inflicted

Due to their own pain.

 

Let's discover the Christ

In our hearts full of sin,

And let's find forgiveness

For the Satan within.

 

Let's reach out for the future

That our healers profess,

For we are all human -

No more and no less.

 

Let's receive without fear

Healing light from above,

And let's open our minds

To unconditional love.

 

Make your aching heart bigger,

Love like never before,

let your hope and forgiveness

Heal the world, stop the war.

 

Love is not just a fantasy

Born of fear and doubt

It's the only solution

It's the only way out.