To Noam Chomsky, Vladimir Putin and all worried about ‘fighting to the last Ukrainian’

Olga Bryukhovetska

You say we are too small to fight

And they’re too big to lose

You say it is not really right

But stronger always rules

You say aggressor was provoked

And comes as hurricane

You say to us your dirty joke

Like it or not – obey

The workers were told the same

And blacks have heard again

You were born to be a slave

Don’t fight a hurricane

You say we’ll die before we win

And that will not be right

We say to you and all your kin

Like it or not – we’ll fight

Kyiv, July 11^th 2022

Olga Bryukhovetska, is co-founder of the Visual Culture Research Center at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She was an original founder of the journal Commons in Ukraine, she publishes on political dimensions of film and visual culture.   This poem is part of a debate with Chomsky, Olga has also published a  critical essay.