War-loom

From eye to ear, to Heaney, to his translation of Beowulf. To historical similarities, to modern pictures of warfare. To conquest and colony; to behaviour admired is the path to power among people everywhere, until behaviour despised leads to a fall. To politics being played as the Russians massing on the borders (of Ukraine) threaten to attack, and there's no united effort to rally the defence. The watchman sees no-one new approaching; the few British soldiers already there flourished at him on arrival training and equipment, not direct involvement. There is no hero, no Beowulf to take on Putin.
Is the Lord weaving on his war-loom peace and safety for the Ukrainians? (Man failed the Afghans.) But perhaps people do not think Putin has the will, though he has the might, to invade? Dialogue, they say, by which they mean giving in, will take the threat away. They forget Hitler. And Stalin. And Mussolini. They forget all the wars, the fights of old. They don't know their kings and queens, their presidents and prime ministers, their political and revolutionary leaders, their military commanders etcetera. It is all propaganda: truth and lies; fear and diplomacy. Russia claim they are not a threat – so why have they massed force there?; Ukraine say they are not threatened – because if war is declared who will help them fight it? Both state the media is portraying – to its NATO-joined peoples – an exaggerated story.
If the Lord, like the people, has no appetite for war, and worries more about the economy, he may yet weave on his war-loom the price for freedom: Putin will move his borders.
Endure your troubles Ukraine; bear up. Prodded, cornered, beaten; caught in a brutal grip – an iron fist, crushed. Elected rule toppled, the Wolf elated.
A too liberal hand weaves the outcome of non-combat; applies, too easily, the poetry, the spirit of Beowulf to the situation.

Picture credit: Lydia at the tapestry loom, 1881, Mary Cassatt (source: WikiArt).

See Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney.

 Written January 2022.