For Mariupol

Roberta Shellum Dohse

April 24, 2022

Run, run, run like the wind,

Run from the harrowing scythe,

From the blade so sharp that cuts like a knife.

The enemy is here, right at our gates,

Come to bury you in the dust of its hate.

Save yourselves – do not wait I pray!

Save yourselves to fight another day.

You are a coward, you do not understand.

We will not leave our beloved land.

We will stay and fight for what we believe

For a chance to be free where we were born.

You, you run.  I turn my back on you.

But I have children, bairns I must save.

I must get them free from this dark burning place

They are too small and I must teach,

Teach them why you fight and stay, 

staring down evil straight in its face.  

Your resolve, so fierce, but watch out for the knife.

Can you find no other way out of this strife? 

That is not what they did at the Alamo.

In the face of such odds, they knew their fate

But still chose to hold the enemy at bay,

Saving others by their delay.

We will do the same, we will hold the line

So that others may live in this fierce time.

You run, take the little ones now,

Soon it will be far too late. 

My heart is breaking, I want to stay,

But I will return to fight another day.

With the young ones, I will flee, 

But I will tell them of you and your bravery,

Your love of land and its people, too.

I will tell them. Know, we will never forget you.

Roberta Shellum Dohse hails primarily from California. After living on a farm in northern Minnesota and in Oregon, she moved to Texas in 1980, attended law school, and has practiced law in Corpus Christi since 1997. Formerly a flight instructor and a college professor, she has always loved to write.