The Ruthenian Banner
Acres of cloth in neat rows now blow
The blue sky above, once yellow fields below,
Line upon line of flags above bones
No fathers, no husbands, no sons all gone
Just white faces etched in black granite stone
No brothers, uncles, the friends are consumed
Lives for the lives that a nation entombed
Blue above and yellow below
where a Sun had shone, where warm summers glowed
Once wheat seeds planted now men are fresh sown
A boy stands with a Ruthenian banner proud for a pose
An innocent pilgrim with blue and yellow or sky blue and gold
A Rusyn alone with no thought of the blows
Of the nation born badly with violent throes
Under the black and red banner raised high
The sky is turned red and the black earth does cry
With blood of the Pole and the Russian and Jew
Of a young woman forced to kneel to amuse
Baying they strip naked a girl as she pleas
Yellow above like a streak down a back
Blue below but now become black
Of the pogroms, the horror of crimes in Volhyn,
Shame is your garment that you wear from within
The burning of buildings with cries from inside
As churches once burned, for your nation’s new pride
Row upon row of your work become death
Idea of the nation to every last breath
Of begging for money and arms and attention
Dragging away a doomed generation
forced to a front, of foul desecration
Skin Yellow in colour with cold blue lips
Of a wasted young boy forced to conscript
Row upon row of what you had sown
Of your nation of dust where now scavenge the crows