Ode To The Russian Revolution
after Warren Beatty & John Reed
Not the continent of tractor factories
you became. Nor the photographs of those
later killed by questions they didn’t ask.
But the banners made of bed linen
flooding Nevsky Prospect. A boy’s laughter
at an old man’s shout of “Down with everything!”
on a street packed with serious talk.
Another man vanishing into the morning
with some odd vases of valuable porcelain.
The high white letters of the crowd’s
new sounding slogans, as they move
around the corner on their way
who knows where.
KEVIN HIGGINS