March Madness
Poets have always responded to war by writing poetry — it’s what we do. Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24th February this year people started sending The Friday Poem their poems about the war — poems about resistance, poems of protest, and poems about specific individuals affected by the fighting. These are stories of courage, grief and hope. We decided to publish some every week as Friday Poems for Ukraine. Here’s ‘March Madness’ by Matt Witt. Slava Ukraini!
March Madness
The war in Ukraine came just in time because
my guys the Marauders weren’t chosen for March Madness
and ever since the Super Bowl I have definitely been
needing a jolt and feeling kind of bored
and then, perfect, there’s this war and it’s Putin vs. Zelensky
and I definitely have Zelensky in my bracket
and right away I posted a selfie in my new Zelensky t-shirt
with half my face painted gold and the other half blue
and it got so many “likes” that I decided to wear that shirt to the gym
which also was good timing because
my Marauders shirt was getting kind of smelly anyway
and everybody was asking me where you get one and isn’t Mr. Ze cool
except for one grumpy old dude
who kept trying to tell me some complicated shit about how
part of Ukraine is near Europe and part of it is near Russia
and even a lot of the people there are divided about what they want
and how this shit has been going on for years
and how all these big companies want Ukraine’s lithium and titanium
and a bunch of other minerals I didn’t even recognize
and how did I think this would end in any way that leads to peace
and finally I had to tell this guy that I’ve got to do my stretching
but it’s been nice talking to you
and while I was stretching I was thinking that since Covid is over
I was going to have a March Madness party and
everybody would compare brackets
but now I think I’ll have a Putin vs. Zelensky theme party
and ask everybody to dress up as
a Russian devil or a Ukrainian super hero
and then we’ll have an arm wrestling contest
and we’ll see which team wins which should be fun
but I should probably do it this weekend before the war ends
or people start going on spring vacation…
