Axis & Allies - damowords

Arms Race
Desirable of Peace prepare for war;
The march of arms in place, Stalinʹs last wish
To match American efforts & more
As when Kaisers outsailʹd Nelson’s English;
Dream science burns,
The first Hydrogen bomb
Well‐tested & upturns the equilibrium.
Soon righted as each treasury
Drainʹd of dawdling billions,
Men like Zhukov forge an army
Of resolute millions,
To the rude conquest of the sea
Go monstrous galleons,
While ready to unload mankindʹs first fears
Are long‐range bombers patrolling the spheres.
The members signʹd to Moscowʹs pact
Have formʹd an Eastern bloc,
If one attackʹd by all be backʹd,
Murdering & amok,
When mach‐ballistic missiles shall unleash the vengant shock.
Warsaw
1955
Siberia
Forgotten far beyond the icy Ob
In gulags choked with undesirables,
Shabby ghosts for emancipation sob,
Those thin‐faced exiles of many peoples;
Altho’ the war
Fading from memory
Still no‐one would restore their human dignity.
A screeching siren rang across
This stark & freezing wasteland,
In stagger’d human dustbin dross,
Spoons splint’ring in trembling hand,
This meal of theirs seem’d more a loss
As thinning porridge pann’d
Barely continued the half existence,
At last! One hero dares sow resistance…
Upon a flimsy raft they float,
Keeping the cold at bay
With stolen coat, they cross’d the moat,
Facing an Arctic grey
They set foot South for India three thousand miles away.
Vorkuta
1957