From: Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 675):

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
shall drain it down to the dregs.
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭75:8‬

This poem was written by a Ukrainian soldier, Artur Dron. It breaks my heart to think that people with such beautiful and gentle souls had to put away their lives and dreams and take up arms, not because of bloodthirsty ambitions but out of love for their people. Is there greater love than this?
The original poem in Ukrainian may be found here – https://fb.watch/pgnDnGP6yB/

Love is patient and kind;
Love does not envy or boast;
Love goes through mighty fear,
Yet it keeps on going.
Love could have given up, left everything behind,
Yet it keeps on going.
Sometimes, love’s feet are pierced by bullets,
Or love’s legs are cut with munition shards.
Love’s legs may be squeezed by a tourniquet,
Or it might have lost its legs.
That’s when love is carried by its friends.

Love digs trenches and lives in them,
It munches on ice from a bottle cut open
When it’s twenty below, and love is thirsty.
Love goes on field missions,
It fortifies positions
With hernias, fevers, and prostatitis,
With concussions, asthma, and allergies,
With a high likelihood of not returning alive,
With the thoughts about someone who matters the most.
Love bears all things, believes all things,
Hopes all things, endures all things.

Love can discern the sounds
Of rocket systems, mine explosions, and tanks.
Love’s eyes get sore
When it keeps staring through the thermal imager.
Love wakes up in the middle of the night when mice crawl under its coat.
Sometimes, love keeps throwing up after a heavy battle.
Sometimes, love closes the eyes of its friends
And rolls them up into their sleeping bags,
And carries them away.

Love never ends!
As for prophecies, they will pass away;
as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will pass away.
Sometimes, after a shelling,
Someone will close love’s eyes,
Its friends will roll it up into its sleeping bag,
And they will carry it away.

And that’s when it is passed on to the living.

prayforUkraine