On Thursday as Russian continued its violent and bloody assault on Ukraine, actress and self-described activist AnnaLynne McCord shared a slam poem message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. While many liked the poem on Twitter, thousands more mocked it, including a prominent U.S. Marine veteran.
In a two-and-a-half-minute reading of her poem addressed to Putin, McCord speculated on Putin’s childhood and lamented that she had not been his mother so that she could have raised him and given him a happier childhood.
“Dear President Vladimir Putin, I’m so sorry that I was not your mother,” McCord’s poem began. “If I was your mother, you would have been so loved.”
“I can’t imagine the stain, the soul-stealing pain that the little boy must have seen and believed as the formulation of thought and quickly taught that you lived in a cruel, unjust world,” McCord continued. “Is this why you now decide no one will get the best of you? Is this why you do not hide nor away shy from taking back the world? Was it because so early in life all that strife wracked your little body with fear?”
“If only I’d been your mother,” she continued, “perhaps the torture of unwrit youth would not within your heart imbue ascription to such fealty against that world that you thought was so cruel. Perhaps you would hold dear human life and instead of Mother Russia you would call me.”
Within hours McCord’s poem had garnered about 15,000 likes. But some Twitter users were not as impressed by her couplets and rhyme scheme.
Kate Mannion, a Marine Afghanistan war veteran and host at Barstool Sports and Zero Blog 30 responded to McCord with her own poem.
“Dear President Vladimir Putin,” Kate’s poem began. “I’m so sorry that I was not your mother. You would get so many raspberries after your bath. Real funny ones on your little Putin belly, you’d laugh so much you’d shake like a bowl of Putin jelly.”
“If I were your mother, I would rely upon you heavily for likes on Instagram before you were, uh . . . evil,” Mannion’s poem continued. “Which would build your self-esteem and you’d say ‘I like myself the way I am.'”
“If I were your mother you wouldn’t have to invade Ukraine, instead we’d splash in puddles in the driveway in the rain,” Mannion continued. “Perhaps its not too late. We can spare the world such pain. Come over and bake cookies. We’ll use up all the sugar cane.”
“It’s not too late,” Mannion concluded, signing off with a thumbs up and a hug gesture.
Other Twitter users joined in mocking McCord’s poem.
One Twitter user said, “I wouldn’t mind getting nuked [to be honest] after watching this.”
Another Twitter user compared McCord’s poem to a mashup video of celebrities singing John Lennon’s song “Imagine” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in the spring of 2020.
Another user, noting McCord’s prior role in the tv show 90210 tweeted, “It takes a lot for me to long for the days when you were reciting lines from a 90210 script instead, but you managed to pull off the unthinkable with this monologue.”
Conservative commentator Jesse Kelly shared a gif of a cartoon character smashing his computer and dousing gasoline over it and starting a fire before shooting himself.
One tweet read, “This is worse than making a petition” while another said, “I wish boys with mommy issues a very bad WW3.”
Another user tweeted, “Try Not To Cringe Challenge [Nightmare Difficulty].”
