Water at Our Backs
Left bank
No smoking
No noise
Landing team, ground
Move
The Dnipro behind us chews at
the shore The boat strikes the
water, we’re pressed to the floor
Nobody’s talking ‘cause the night has
ears Inside every chest its own
heartbeat hammers Drones above us slice
up the route Fifteen seconds and
they’ll find us here The bank
takes us in,
not gently,
just real Fall into the dirt
while the dirt still yields
Quiet, quiet Kill the light Don’t
breathe out loud Quiet,
quiet Down to earth Water at
our backs Water at our backs,
fire in front of us Drones
over our heads,
radio full of curses There was
no assault,
there was chaos and us Drag
your own man out,
then you can talk Water at
our backs,
fire in front of us The
left bank is holding the tracks
we left Not to commanders,
but to Ukraine Faithful always,
faithful always By morning,
the fog lay low and wet
We moved among strangers without looking
too long The field kept silent,
but it knew the names Who
breathed yesterday,
who became only earth The teshka
is cold,
everything breathes death Curses come whispered,
fingers on the heart Wire under
your hand,
a mine in the grass Luck
today is not on every side
Quiet, quiet Kill the light Don’t
break a branch Quiet,
quiet Down to earth The earth
can hear
Water at our backs,
fire in front of us Drones
over our heads,
radio full of curses There was
no assault,
there was chaos and us Drag
your own man out,
then you can talk Water at
our backs,
fire in front of us The
left bank is holding the tracks
we left Not to commanders,
but to Ukraine Faithful always,
faithful always First impact and the
day got short Second impact,
someone shouts “Stretcher out” Of fifteen,
five are already three hundred The
kind of scream that keeps you
from sleep You ask for evac,
static answers back You ask again,
the air crushes like pressure And
our victory in that moment is
simple That your own man makes
it, that your own isn’t left
Back in the rear,
on the map the arrows Are
thin and straight,
out here every arrow Runs into
bone
In the notebook it’s clean,
in the field it is not
No artillery,
no sky,
a man is not a mark
We didn’t curse the country,
we cursed the stupid road When
they threw us into meat and
said “This is how it has
to be” But still
When your own is beside you
You crawl back again
Into the meadow rain
Because in this strip between water
and fire
All your truth is this: Don’t
leave those who came with you
Water at our backs,
fire in front of us Drones
over our heads,
radio full of curses There was
no assault,
there was chaos and us Drag
your own man out,
then you can talk Water at
our backs,
fire in front of us The
left bank is holding the tracks
we left Not to commanders,
but to Ukraine Faithful always,
faithful always
Trek
to the spit Strikes
Two hundred
Repeating
Strikes
Two hundred Quiet
Kill the light
No noise
Drag your own out
Water at our backs,
fire in front of us Drones
over our heads,
radio full of curses There was
no assault,
there was chaos and us Drag
your own man out,
then you can talk
Not for medals,
not for speeches Not for pretty
foreign headlines Not to commanders,
but to Ukraine Faithful always,
faithful always Kriky is not a
name
Kriky is a sound When the
radio wheezes And your friend goes
cold Kriky is the bank Where
time never passed Where water is
behind you
And you drag your own again
Faithful always
Faithful always
Faithful always
Not to commanders
But to