Who could forget the butchers
of Leningrad
as the mighty Wehrmacht
blockaded the city
laying siege for 872 days and nights

No way to know
whether the German OKW imagined
Stalin’s decree, Order 227
“Not One Step Back”
would level the field at 2 million dead

Now the oligarchs are at it again
expecting Zhytomyr, Gostomel, Bucha
and Kyiv to “fall
like leaves” as soldiers
and civilians count the cost of war

No way to know
whether the ghosts of Leningrad
would stop the killing
even if they could, as the 40 mile convoy
of Russian armor advances

on the innocent and the damned