In the latest TV report from the war in Ukraine,
a young mother and her two children,
(who are holding a blanket and two small teddies)
are huddled together beside, at least,
a hundred others, in a semi-dark air raid shelter,
as the snow-cold night takes hold around them,
and the sirens wail above them, compelling her
to say something we’d do well to remember,
long after the fighting stops, and the war is over.

She says: ‘All I want is to go back to the heaven
of my old anxious life, and all its small worries
I thought were so big, before the tanks came
and the bombs came, and my whole world exploded
for real. Now, there is only this … to be thankful for!’