Trees of Ukraine - Sara Stegen
One of the Top 24 submissions in our 2022 Urban Tree Festival writing competition.
Trees of Ukraine
The trees of Ukraine line city streets
Leafless watchers
Curtained in dust, cordite clouding
Trunks, outreached limbs
Shells boom
Since that day
The trees of Ukraine rise
Fearless
Above basements and air-raid shelters
Surprised by invaders
Some trees in Ukraine are black
Stocky, charred
Limbs amputated, missing
Pointing fingers
Hurt, rootless, dying
Weep
Trails of black tears run down their trunks
Some trees in Ukraine are mottled white
Pulsating
Life blood
Reaching
Out to people, bloodred sky, buildings
Eye sockets dry and white
Some trees in Ukraine wear
Camo
Soldier on
Amidst hostilities
Roots gripping tightly into the earth
Some trees in Ukraine shelter
Teddy bears, toys, burnt-out trucks and cars
Brick, ash, splintered glass
Watching
Sky, defenders, city dwellers
Scurry
Some trees in Ukraine wait
Hopeful, rail-thin, black and white
Signposts
Of spring, coiled, hibernating
For a people scarred
And proud
Some trees in Ukraine
in besieged cities
Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Hostomel
Kharkiv, Kherson, Melitopol
Unknown to us before
Are more than just trees
Are life
Hope
Witness
Windows
Some trees in Ukraine will tell stories
Later
Will heal us
Perhaps
In future
Playing children will give them names
Poke fingers in their scars
Name those who fought
Those who died
Those they saw
Survive
The trees of Ukraine are leafless shelters
Charred reminders of before
Still alive
Hanging on
Waiting for the silent spring of peace
For the bell to ring in the last round
And blossom pink teardrop petals
For all of us
Remember
Sara Stegen
Sara Stegen is a nature writer, inclusion advocate and avid cyclist. She is working on a memoir about her Dutch rural landscape, apples and autism.
