Move Me Poetry

Besieged

a window into the darkness

I see the resilience of the human mind as your face reflected back to me in the brazen white light of an electronic device, every nook and cranny of your features artfully in stark relief in evidence of a thoughtful search for knowledge. Surrounded by the black night of curfew, lit in rebellious subterfuge to remain connected. You are held with the same light of a single taper lit in a darkened refuge of those besieged, before you, across the centuries.

I see the resilience of the human heart in the cheery face of a boy and the warm gaze of his beloved mother upon him. Through the small window of a screen that connects us, I am but a voyeur in your navigation of learning as you proclaim answer after answer, yearning for knowledge that will not be denied. You are uninhibited by mistakes bolstered with the enchanting joy of your mother’s encouragement as she swaddles you in the strength of mothers besieged, before you, across the centuries.

I see the resilience of the human soul in your excited anticipation of practiced conversation. Your expression is beaming light in the surrounding darkness that cannot dampen your eagerness to wilfully remain connected and seek human contact amongst the abandonments of war. You join with curiosity and exuberance that belies the distance between us, that forgives my inability to create more peace or safety that I only share language across the ether.

I cannot provide a well-trod tunnel to escape. I do not provide food or supplies. I have only on offer the pathway of millions of points of light across time and space, where tangled in the stars above our shared humanity we find the message of hope and continuity sent by those besieged, before you, across centuries.

Day one from “An Educator’s Journey”, captures the experience of teaching English to students in Ukraine or as refugees in other countries. In moments of connectivity, I’m reminded of the long history of sieges as a military tactic and the message of those who came before, and the strength and resilience of those, worldwide, who suffer it now.