A Duet of Poems by Krystyna Danuta Bargiel and Ludmila Fico
To Ludi, Combat Nurse in Ukraine
Krystyna Danuta Bargiel
I want to walk with you to visit a neighbor’s home on a street free of bombed houses.
...I want us to watch a child ride her new bike as her mother waves her first goodbye unworried of buried mines.
…I want to laugh with you and tell bad jokes full of tales that do not end in grief.
.… I want us to swim in a forest pond under sun-filled skies free of the drones of warplanes.
…I want us to cook a family feast for a holiday, the stores not empty of sweets and spices
…I want to read poems you scribble on notepads after you bandage the wounded on your hospital shift.
But I can’t.
There is no way for me to hear you.
Nothing appears in my message box.
War has stolen your voice from me.
I want
Ludmila Fico
I want to walk on the street under
a sky adorned with white clouds and
the Sun shining through. I want to feel
the pavement under my feet, the concrete
cleaned by the city services. I want to see
a child holding his mother’s hand, and
marching proud with their plastic bucket and a spade.
I want to hear people laughing from
stupid jokes or situations that happened
to them or their close ones. I want to swim
in the river’s blues; catch the fishes and let
them go free. I want to hide inside the walls
of lush green corn’s leaves. I want to hold
in my hand a small pile of grain from this year’s harvest.
I want to listen to the waves of the sea and
wailing seagulls flying above like white angels
cut out from the sky. I want to pack picnic basket
and unfold checkered blanket. I want to sing
although my voice ashamed crows. I want to swing
on a hammock pushed by gentle wind. I want to…
But, I can’t. My shift’s approaching and
I have to patch the wounded.
This is war.
Artist’s Statement
There is a wonderful story about how these poems came to be. Ludi and I [Krystyna] had been in the same poetry group for almost a year during which I had asked her if I could try to publish her poems and we started messaging each other. One week I posted a comical poem about taking my cat to get neutered – (a 'catsration' – a made up word that fits so well) - and, for the first time, she responded with a funny pre-war story about her cats – I could almost hear her laugh. The next week she posted “I Want” with some pre-war memories. It seemed, for just one moment, she was able to let go of the horrors of the war and remember what life had been like before the invasion. I think that exchange was the best moment of my year. Perhaps it was.
Krystyna Danuta Bargiel’s poems have been published in Spillwords Press and Charles River Mud Review. She is also a painter and has exhibited in galleries in Worcester and Cambridge, Massachusetts. A retired art therapist with a master’s degree in expressive therapy, she works with local artists and believes in the healing power of all art forms during any stage of life. She volunteers at a cancer center where she serves coffee and tries not to spill it on her patients as she excitedly brings them poems as well as vegetables from her garden. The bluebirds and goldfinches in yard also keep her busy filling their feeders. Krystyna was born in 1949 in a Polish refugee camp in post-WWII England. Her mother, born in Ukraine and deported to Siberia as a child, told her many stories that are often interwoven into Krystyna’s writings. She is working on an autobiography that includes the family histories of her grandparents and her parents’ exodus from Poland and Ukraine.
My name is Ludmila Fico and I'm from Ukraine. I used to work as a math teacher in primary school but the school doesn't exist any longer, so I changed my profession and joined the hospital staff. First, I was a helper, but now I'm working as a nurse. I began writing poetry in abundance after the war started as a form of coping mechanism. I'm sorry, I don't know how to describe this better. I'd love to meet more people and learn how to make my poetry better. Writing poetry makes me forget what's around me and that helps a lot.