NaPoWriMo (Day 16): Protest against the rapes in Ukraine

 
For the month of April, I’m writing a poem a day from prompts on https://www.napowrimo.net. You can click on the headlines (Day One, etc) to view/add comments. There’s also a list of participants’ sites below the site header.

Day 16

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, Pied Beauty. A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it. Here are two other examples of Hopkins’ curtal sonnets: Ash Boughs and Peace.

 
This poem is about a protest in Tallinn against the rapes happening in Ukraine.

Today, I read about a protest against rape in the Ukraine war in front of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn (April 13). The message of the organisers was: “Russian soldiers are raping and murdering innocent women and children in Ukraine. People who support this war also support war crimes, jarring murders to which they are accomplices. That is our message to the supporters of the Putin regime.”

 
Protest against the rapes in Ukraine
 
Hands tied, folded behind their backs
they stand dead still in a line straight,
half-naked, flesh exposed to the cold,
heads submerged in black plastic sacks,
because in war this is some women’s fate,
and their horrific stories must be told.
 
In Tallinn outside the Russian embassy,
they show silent solidarity. They wait,
thinking of the women of Ukraine, so bold.
They protest the rapes we hear of on TV,
women murdered. Stone-cold.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 16, 2022

Image: Tallinn demonstration against rape. Credit: Priit Murk-ERR.

Article link: https://news.err.ee/1608563656/rapes-in-ukraine-prompt-protest-in-front-of-tallinn-s-russian-embassy