We Need to Look Longer

The eye feels the light, 
the lens knows the truth:

The children silent
under a blue tarp
amongst the rubble— 

their little backpacks 
still on their backs 
offering the hope they 
still might stand up

then, the beat—
and the realization 
that will never happen.

You want 
to look away
yet you can’t.
 
You must 
look closer.

You must 
look for longer.

Again and again you 
must be the essential, 
indisputable witness

to things no human
being wishes to see—

The line of strollers 
left at Przemyśl station by 
fleeing mothers carrying
their infants in their arms,

a less brutal 
more hopeful image 
connecting in solidarity 

mothers divided  
by geography 
and circumstance.

And yet, there 
is the uncovered 
mother and child 

who died face up 
in the square amidst 
the brightest sun,

the bloody pregnant 
mother being evacuated
on a stretcher

who stop you 
in first gaze 
and mid-breath,

who demand 
you to act, demand 
you to respond,

when you see the mass 
graves of Mariupol

and know you can 
only think of 
those of Babi Yar.
 

The famous Ukraine war photos 
referenced in this poem can be 
seen by visiting the following links to them:

  https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/03/08/ukraine-family-killed-irpin-why-photo-matters/9431379002/

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-edf7240a9d990e7e3e32f82ca351dede/gallery/c78c87d51b064e789bfa4449de274703

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/09/europe/gallery/mariupol-hospital-bombed/index.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/comments/t83lrj/moms_in_poland_left_their_baby_strollers_in_rail/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mother-killed-with-children-while-fleeing-ukraine-identified-as-silicon-valley-employee

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-maternity-hospital-pregnant-woman-dead-c0f2f859296f9f02be24fc9edfca1085

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-on-anniversary-of-babi-yar-massacre-newly-released-photos-shed-light-1.10258666