Garland

Sweet winter oranges
sliced, dried, on a day that filled
the apartment
with the scent of burning
sugar now inviting the light like
little rings of cathedral
glass, their color sings
against blue skies
or jewel-like, stokes
my spirit
for the grey ones

"I never pray, but since last week it is all I do."

"I never pray, but since last week it is all I do. I pray for peace. I pray for de-escalation. I pray for the ordinary Ukrainians - some of whom I know and love - who are displaced, waiting in bomb shelters, etc. I pray for the people experiencing racism at the border. And I pray for the ordinary Russians whose economy and futures are also imploding, who didn't ask for this suicide mission in their names. And I pray for all of us."

- Maria Sonevytsky

I am so cognizant in recent days of my luck. A warm bed. A safe home. So much of who and what I love gathered here and nearby. So cognizant that life could be otherwise. Unsettled. Shaken by what news and images make it here of the faces and experiences of those ordinary Ukrainians right now.