Anthony Rizvanov, an 11th grader here at EHS, shares his perspective on the crisis in Ukraine.

What Lies Behind a Country?

“Until the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will never know peace.”

~Jimi Hendrix

As hellfire rains down from the sky,

Onto a nation of people who wonder why,

Husbands pray to gods to save their wives,

As they proceed, in the donation of their lives,

To defend the sovereignty of their rightful nation, 

To watch their fellow blood be shed, and yet remain at their stations, 

To watch the life fly, from the eyes of children who cannot cry, 

Is to be nothing more than a nightmarish lie:

We are the same blood, me and the aggressors, 

We are of the same mud, me and the stressors, 

So am I an American, or,

A part of the first part of the Russian-American war?

I am a proud American, with Russian blood in my veins,

I’m standing by, while missiles fly, and it’s driving me insane,

The composition of body no longer causes me pain, 

I call out the leader of Russia, like that will make a change. 

Kyiv is Mother Russia, the former Tsardom capital, 

Making Russia the child, for all purposes practical;

A child, relentlessly attacking its own mother; 

A country, relentlessly murdering its own brothers.

A Slav is a Slav, regardless of location. 

Attacking your kin without provocation.

Ordering orders to slaughter daughters, 

Mortaring storages depriving fathers of water.

Your job as a leader is to protect and to serve,

Not to send your economy into a downward-sloping curve.

Considering the history of the USSR, Putin, 

You’ve got a lot of nerve. 

Remember how that turned out? The starvation that occurred? 

Remember the voices of the oppressed crying out? Fighting to be heard?

The glory of Mother Russia will never tarnish, the events will reoccur,

By the hand of the final dictator, not the Russian people, Ukraine continues to burn.

–Anthony Rizvanov, 11th grader at EHS