Rain falls from the sky
Reaching out the arms
Raindrops pass through fingers as tender as leaves
And wet the little girl's childhood

When little, we are
Like sunflowers yet to be in flower
A little rain does no harm

A little rain of freedom does no harm

But in the fields beyond the horizon
The Ukrainian sunflowers
Encounter slanting winds and slanting rains
Bullets with no eyes
Rake over the land from the sky
Ravaging the sunflowers yet to produce seeds

Rain of bombs rain down nonstop
Stiff-necked folk they are, too
Hold fast to standing on their homeland
Hand in hand, every leaf
Suffers the acid rain await the clear sky
The fields expect
A sea of golden sunflowers to bloom once again


Published in issue 348 of the Poetry magazine Bamboo Hat, 2022