Welcome to the Putin Archipelago

by Valery Oisteanu

On the bridge to Red square lay the body of Nemtsov
Shot four times in the back, beside the Kremlin Wall
Here slept Lenin, here slept Stalin
Where is the hope to end war and corruption ?
Oh!  Russia of my childhood, Mayakovski’s Moscow
Watch the convoy of white trucks as a diversion
Tanks and missiles rumbling toward the Ukrainian front
Cossacks against Maidan-fascist, brother against brother
Watch Putin the Great seize more territories
Crimea, part of the soul of every Russian
Crimea, the fist of aggression against the West
Donetsk connected to mother Russia, the New-Russia
The Putin Archipelago grows, South Ossetia, part of Georgia
Abkhazia & Chechnya and rest of the Gulag
Annexation Syndrome: grab East of Ukraine
While the West is groggily sleepwalking
6000 civilians dead, discouraged, missing
Unpronounceable names of destroyed villages
Legislation changed, opposition killed, reformers jailed
The Russians are marching past St. Basil Cathedral
Past the Kremlin’s chiming watchtowers
No hope in sight, no freedom of thought for decades
Reverse epiphany of planetary love and hate
Pussy Riot in exile, Kasparov in exile
As so many before, Boris Nemtsov, another martyr silenced