I send a love letter from Ukraine
I am in love with a woman
but we are children still
who know nothing of war
or rain or time
how can I make her believe
love is a dangerous territory
the roads are bad
this year in Poltava
and in Donetsk the Russians
have leveled an entire airport
I tell her this while in Kyiv
while I stagger back
to my hotel room
drunk and partnerless
this is how desire
will yet make fools of us
tonight I am asking
only for another’s touch
as I pause on a bridge
overlooking the Dnieper
J. David is from Cleveland, Ohio and serves as poetry editor for Flypaper Magazine