Guitar by Aaliyah Taylor

It’s been building up for years Yet nobody seemed to expect it Our people shed incessant tears Over a conflict surpassing our wit.

Ukraine was a sovereign country With its own territory and leaders Everything they worked for is crumbling Despite their cries for freedom

We feel shame for our president’s actions We have no idea what will come next We protest, demanding that the conflict slackens Only to be punished by thousands of arrests.

Ukrainians hold their flag, in refusal of defeat Blue, like Kharkiv’s deep ocean skies Yellow, like Lviv’s abundant fields of wheat Killed by government, one part of our world dies

The continuous bombing and shelling, The ongoing flow of refugees The Kremlin is too powerful for rebelling And civilians are forced to leave

The issue in our world is the rich, the power thirsty The “people” we call our governments Who send our men to war, leaving families hurting But our leaders do this for the fun of it

We beg for peace all over the earth Meaning ceasefire in every country also Where our children can live safely, from birth And every guilty nation won’t play the hero

America’s occupation of Syria, blanked out The UK’s invasion of Iraq, forgotten All these double standards are the reason we doubt Knowing politics will never soften

Perhaps one day, nobody will have to suffer Planet earth will be a safe, stable place without war But until then, things will only get rougher Yet we will wait patiently, and embrace what we asked for

By Alina Silkin