Do chestnuts still bloom conical
in the trees of Kyiv
where once we worked to fight a
plague?
Do kids still play
in Shevchenko Park?
Eat ice cream
while parents drink
the park’s flowing beer,
or play chess below the statue
of a poet
who dreamed a nationhood
now besieged?
Does the Museum of Kyiv
still offer art?
Or have the works of centuries
been blasted into mere memories
of a shattered past?
