A Russian Says No

Mark is a Certified Public Accountant and a published writer having been featured in several anthologies along with his hometown newspaper.

You think you know who we are
The people who get what we deserve
We didn’t ask to be born in harm’s way
But we love our children more than guns
We don’t fall in love with whom we serve

You wonder how we can be so brave
We guide the spade that parts the soil
We are always ready to dig our own graves
We see our shadows reflection on the ice
Our will is to face the bullets as we toil

Courage is why bones live forever in a coffin
And our flesh and blood cling to its marrow
The life force inside is passed between us
Our bond is our race and our life is our death
Defying our own evil is the point of an arrow

We know of famine and terror in our homes
Winters so long summer becomes a moment
We know to put ourselves to use with a tool
What we build is forever titled in our name
The death of innocent men is now our torment

Do you really think you know us well?
Your history books speak of revolutionaries
Men who hated Czars and the people's hunger
They told us we were free of their discontent
By means of production we are beneficiaries

So they say but now we must vanquish another
The way of bravery is to refuse Satan's plot
Our brothers freed themselves from the fire
But we know our duty is to honor their legacy
We live free but die if our neighbor cannot

© 2022 Mark Lecuona