In response to Lori Schreiner’s painting “Holding Tight to All we Love in an Underground Shelter” and an article by C.J. Chivers

Dear Liubov,

Your cat Murysia lies

sideways in your arms,

trusting. But it knows

fear: when your young,

blushed face leans heavy

against your boyfriend,

Maksym, his hat worn

too many air-raided days

amid a subway’s stench

of shock and dread.

You love your home

but leave it, visit when

shells cease and soldiers

go to military tents

beyond the concrete

tons of Ukrainian grief.

We wish you all safe, Liubov.

We wish you all well, especially

when you leave Kyiv.

Godspeed,

T & L

Short-lined letter form borrowed from Jessica Cuello’s book Yours, Creature.

 

brightly colored oil painting of a boy in blue and a girl in purple-red huddled together holding a calico cat
Holding Tight to All we Love in an Underground Shelter by Lori Schreiner
oil on paper, 12″ × 10″, 2024

In response to Alexander Chekmenev’s New York Times photo