Russian Poem 1


you have told the lyrics 
of this sad song
how the painter
having lost her
 and everything
had only the roses left
and how you lived it
and now we have danced it
gently and even wildly

it is nothing but pain
but there is nothing I can do
the short walk in the rain
the quick cutting goodbye
the wall of never again
the impossibility of ever again
withdrawing behind the impenetrable
and not knowing where
in this Moscovian landscape
you are I sense
the fathomless sadness 
of a still life
fading evening light
cast on petals
beneath the torquoise vase



white letters on red
in the peoples' park
the titanium rocket
(Gagarin revisited)
heroism boldly struck
entreating sacrifice
picking our sensitivities
from the skin of our sorrow

here, in the land of the 'enemy'
we have reached an impasse
not even your innocent pain
or my wonderment at it
will make me walk with you
down into your cold rooms
where I could not tell you no



Turning back to you my love
I better understand
the rendering of your poem
  the door, the light your strong palm stilling 
  the drum of your heart
there is no dividing
the waters of our love