The Russian brute destroys lives
By killing, by grief, by loss.
Cities, towns, and villages
Racked and ruined
By soldier brutes who follow their leader.
Others, sent by the brute, hate the war,
Turn themselves in, desert,
Go home to hide, or worse.
The shirtless brute, astride his horse,
Flexes his muscles and reveals his weakness.
Why?
Useless destruction by a mad hardly-a-man.
When will it end? How will it end?
To what purpose,
Save the exercise of the madness
Of the Russian brute?
June Butler (9-25-2022)