The Map by Gloria Mindock

Sadness will not desert us.

This country fights but will not disappear.

I would like to paint a special canvass 

for you to hang on your wall, but I can’t.

There is no food to feed the many 

tongues of need.

This territory is bombed flat.

Many fled but some did not.

Their heart is buried deep in this soil.

No amount of death will make it less.

They look tattered but are brave.

Their skin blossoms into Sunflowers daily.

Aiming towards the sun.

Facing beauty of the light in a dark hell.

On a map of the country, there

is only destruction seen.

The people are proud raising their arms

to take land back. 

A gesture of existence on the battlefront,

they are heroes fighting the occupied cities

collapsing the fangs which try to bite down.

Gloria Mindock is editor of Červená Barva Press. She is an award-winning author of 6 poetry collections, 3 chapbooks and a children’s book. Her poems have been published and translated into eleven languages. Her recent book, ASH (Glass Lyre Press, 2021), won 6 book awards and was translated into Serbian by Milutin Durickovic and published by Alma Press in Belgrade in 2022. Gloria was the Poet Laureate in Somerville, MA in 2017 & 2018. For more information about Gloria Mindock, visit her website at: www.gloriamindock.com