Ukrainian Couple Handcuff Themselves
To Each Other to Fix Relationship
 
We’re alienated by countless
thousands as trespassers compete to
steal our mother’s ancient heart
from the eternal cities of the east.
Winter is long in our bones.
The river freezes in its run.
The furnace is bitter and night
blazes in a crystal bombardment.
All those bodies falling like snow
in Donetsk, while we falter
and retreat from Kharkiv. Every
war begins with an argument.
Every argument is a hostile
development. Something’s wrong
with us that only handcuffs can aid.
Power plants explode into ruin,
bridges disconnect and collapse,
hospitals are hallowed out. We
scatter among the leveled loss of
neighborhoods. Our barest affections
do little to save us. Tying our fate to
our wrists, we toss the key into
the wreckage we’ve made of our lives,
sue for peace under binding terms,
and forgive all territorial ambitions.
The devastation is too complete to
withdraw our forces and return to
our winter habitations. Living
together, frozen boundaries will thaw
between us, diplomatic relations
improve, and a more perfect
and lasting union will be fashioned
from the centuries of our mistrust.
Restrained by our mutual chains,
neither of us can lose much longer.