Hello and welcome to Cook and Crank, the Cosmic Poetry Podcast. I'm your host Simon Pole, the Cosmic Poet. It was a harrowing and man crushing episode of history, one we do well to remember now. That is what the Zex Feed the Ukrainians today's poem is about. The Soviet gulag, peopled by non persons called Zex, and later nationalities like the Ukrainians, who suffered through a tyrannical famine that killed millions. On this we will remember and reflect after the break. Our meager pot, it is our life, it is our strength and will, no daughter dear, no son, no wife, except this stinking swill. We know you came across the leagues to this our snowy camp, where dawn the weary soul fatigues, and bunks are always damp. Our hands are smashed, our stomachs tight, love is from us beaten, but never in the darkest night have we children eaten Who can believe whoever thought of places worse than this, where brilliant minds are left to rot, and men sleep in their piss? Yet there you are, outside our cage, you press against the walls, and clamor for the smallest wage which from the jailer falls What horrors have you left behind inflicted on you too, from out that plan mad, godless mind, which down our country threw? Here take my spoon and taste a sip, enough it is to rest, and heaven ask, why does the whip so brutal our backs test? You have just heard Sex Feed the Ukrainians from the poetry collection Poems for Ocean. I'm your cosmic poet and host, Simon Pohl. Visit the website SimonPole.ca for more cosmic poetry, including the book we've just read from. We'll be back soon on the Cook and Crank Podcast with more readings from the Poems for Ocean Collection. Until then, remember, poetry is the water of life, though whiskey might be too. Goodbye.