This poem was written by a Nataliia U. in September 2025, in response to Diana Forster’s art exhibition Somewhere to Stay, during a workshop at The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, delivered by Never Such Innocence.
War’s shadows have fallen down
The crime of being Ukrainian getting punished.
War has taken a loving home from us
The terrors are now getting published.
The bombing, the kills, an unending circle.
The only way is to get away,
But it is actual torture.
The weather is cold, the houses are gray.
You run and you look for relief of your pain,
Of losing your home.
Your loved ones are grieving
For person who was once present in kitchen
Who laughed and who loved,
And it’s all down the drain.
You get a new life,
But connected to shadows of pain.
Your life has been failed, the one that you miss.
Your heart is half empty, half full
Your mind, filled with anger, your insides get burnt.
But you still wish, and that wish is what you live for
Of coming back home, of houses to rebuild
And forget the terror like a fever dream.
You hope and you pray just to get some self worth
For something to keep you asleep at dark nights.