Sunday, February 07, 2010

Kiev in January

High above the Dnieper, titanium Motherland towers,

Raising the sword in her right hand,

Classical goddess on the heathen steppe.

Vladimir I, washerwoman’s son,

Took Kiev by treachery and fratricide.

Winter burns with a terrible fire

No summer can match,

A peppery draught of horilka,scalding the throat.

The taxi driver grins, teeth missing:

“You want women? Very beautiful.And clean.”

Out on the frozen river, a lone fisherman

Stares down into his little ice-hole,

Waiting, waiting..

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