All the world watches

One and a half million refugees,

so far

have said their farewells

to men who have to stay,

as women hold bewildered children

and grandmothers weep.

 

A man sees his wife and kids 

onto a crammed carriage,

his tears stream as

he watches them leave.

You can feel the connection

between them pulling, stretching.

He will fight for his country

and for them.

 

And the man in the Kremlin says this is not war.

 

Sirens sound across cities,

families trail to underground stations

camp on platforms

sleep in stationery trains

keep each other warm.

 

Blocks of flats

crumble like the twin towers

burn like Grenfell

and no-one can put out the fires.

After the bombings

there are bodies in the streets.

 

And the man in the Kremlin says this is not war.

 

Hospitals, nurseries, schools

pummelled from the air

cluster munitions smash a kindergarten

ballistic missiles wreck a health centre.

There’s no water, no food,

no power.

 

People race to a city centre

where 50 buses wait

to take them across borders

but the ceasefire is a lie

and they are shelled in the streets

where they gather

like prisoners in a ghetto.

 

And the man in the Kremlin says this is not war.

 

His military shell nuclear power stations,

cut off the internet

block mobile signals.

Yet the words get out ... people meet...

And thousands of demonstrators

are detained at anti-war protests

across Russia

as the sound of dissent

is stifled.

 

And the man in the Kremlin still says this is not a war.