Tanka poems against the war

I pray for children, elderly people, sick people, all the people who are too weak to evacuate and who are displaced in the bombing in Ukraine by Russia.

What we need now is a ceasefire. Please do not make this happen again.

The girl has just turned four years old

She has a dream

Of playing with a doll her sister treasures

The doll has blond ringlets

Sheeny in the sunshine

And eyes as blue as a clear sky

The red dress it is wearing

Is adorned with frills in tiers

"One day when I turn five years old,

I will ask my sister to let me hold the doll"

A dream of a little girl

"On my next birthday

I will comb the hair of the doll"

One day at dawn

An alert goes off and

Bombs fall down from the sky

The girl, the doll and her little dream

All have perished

All have gone

Kaoru Kobashi　（2004）

"Flowers and Bombs: Stop the Violence of the War Now!" p. 37

https://hanabaku.blogspot.com/

Drawing by Kaoru Kobashi "Flowers and Bombs: Stop the Violence of the War Now!" p. 38