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 missle, the bomb
As they explode
Where once was my home?

I was 5 years old.
It was like paradise:
My Ukranian 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
Each 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 theonly solution
It’s the only way out.