to the Last Ukrainian (Poem)

We’ll fight them on the beaches 
We’ll fight them on the shores
We’ll fight those Russians anywhere
Not with our lives—but with yours

We’ll fight them in the East
To stop them coming to the West
We’ll send you all the weapons
So by God do your best!

For well over a century
We’ve had to tame the bear
From Crimea to Kabul
And back home with Red Scares

The Japanese helped out
The Germans knock them for six
The Bolsheviks were the best however
They put the economy in the sticks

The Afghans stung them good
In an eight year war
It may have cost a million lives
But the Soviet Empire was no more
 
The boys from Harvard took them down
Through ‘structural reform’
By the time they got through
Starvation was the norm

It’s true, NATO has expanded
Moving ever East
Some say it’s aggression 
But we’re just trying to contain the beast!

Now it’s the turn of Ukrainians
To step up to the plate
We may have got you in this mess
But you made such damn good bait

We’ll tell you that you’re heroes
And fly blue and yellow flags
That sounds like fair compensation
For putting your sons in body bags

Don’t ask us to negotiate
Appeasement ain’t for us
Besides life is perfectly fine here
So what really is the fuss?

We appreciate your sacrifice
In service of our grand imperial plan
It’s a worthy thing to die for 
So conscript all those you can

You’ll join the ranks of heroes
Who have stood up to the bear
And when it’s all over—
Then: you’ll see just how much we care 

We’ll fight them on the beaches 
We’ll fight them on the shores
It’s easy to fight with other people’s lives
In our Russian proxy wars