Summer Solstice

A moveable feat

Ain Stærlingsson🎄
2 min readJun 17, 2024
A Viking visits

Summer Solstice is here. Where? We do not know. Maybe around the corner. That too, we are not sure about, because corners are also as temporary as here.

A visitor arrived today, a medic, on leave, except she did not leave. Why leave? What is better than not leaving?

She is a viking, she says, and so on Summer Solstice we must bathe in the water, and watch the sun rise. No, not merely watch, because we are Vikings, so we will literally lift it to the sky when it appears. I tell my friend we may not be here, next to the river, on June 21st.

I have another friend, a very close friend, she will be cooking for the troops on that date, in Kharkiv.* I will never forget when she was nearly hit by a cruise missile. BANG! What should I do, she said on the phone.

Run, I said. She says I swore, to give emphasis to her running, that I said, just fucking run.

But even when we run we do not leave.

old town
bomb hits —
ripples come, ripples go

Scribed for dverse

*(Take care, callsign Bunny (you lynx) I know you’ll see this, remember Kharkiv = here, see you soon)

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Ain Stærlingsson🎄
Ain Stærlingsson🎄

Written by Ain Stærlingsson🎄

---A forestbather in UA🌳currently writing "Love and Loss in Ukraine" based on the war🌳member of <forestbathers unit> support them @forestbather via Revolut🌳

Responses (9)

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As always a visceral read, Ain. To hold on to sanity amidst this craziness, to be able to have good memories despite the darkness surrounding you and for sharing all that you experience, I salute you.

I enjoy reading your words from Ukraine, Ain, but I also worry for you and your friends, Vikings in the middle of a foreign war, even though I know it’s a Viking trait to persevere - as you say, ‘even when we run we do not leave’. I love the play on the famous Basho ‘old pond’ haiku in yours.

"even when we run we do not leave." These are poignant words.