Wars and Rumours of Wars

By Ron Pickett

We thought it might be over;
Wars and rumours of wars.
Then Russia invaded.
It was a short incursion,
They said.
Ukraine was their territory 
Anyway, anyway!
They said,
It was too costly to try we thought,
Wars and rumours of wars.
Sanctions! we said.
They couldn’t take the sanctions.
The Russians couldn’t.
But they fought back
The Ukrainians fought back
They weren’t supposed to.
They were supposed to be easy pickins’;
A walk in the park,
A few weeks, an exercise
A year has passed.
60000 Russians are dead. Or 200000
15 thousand Ukrainians or 100000
Ukraine is blackened rubble.
The snow is red with blood.
All is dark
There is no winner.
We were wrong,
We were so wrong!
Wars and rumours of wars 
They are still there.
Peace is not a part of our nature!
China lusts for Taiwan.
Shalom.

Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings. His 90-plus articles have appeared in numerous publications. He enjoys writing fiction and has published five books: Perfect Crimes – I Got Away with It, Discovering Roots, Getting Published, EMPATHS, and Sixty Odd Short Stories.

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