Editor’s note: As the United States of America makes plans to reopen its Kyiv embassy in war-torn Ukraine, Dr. Raymond F. Comeau, a Haverhill native, gives WHAV’s audiences another topical and insightful poem, “Cycling in Bucha.”
Comeau urges WHAV’s audiences “not to forget the misery, slaughter and injustice in Ukraine. To lose sight of these things, as hard as they are, is to lose sight of our common compassion and humanity.”
Now of Belmont, Comeau is a retired dean and current lecturer at Harvard University Extension School. He is also a trustee, emeritus, of the John Greenleaf Whittier Birthplace in Haverhill.
Cycling in Bucha
(Inspired by a news account)
Shoulders back and forth
He was pedaling down a street
As rhythmical as a song
Then he stopped got off
And walked his bike around a bend
But tanks were facing him there
Two booms no questions asked
(We do a better job killing cows)
How many memories disappeared
In an instant
How many hopes
How many people did this man love
Parents and if married
A wife kids likely
Dear friends
Whose grief will be unspeakable
How do they love
An enemy who did this
© Raymond Comeau April 2022