Tags
Afghanistan, Erasmus Grasser, God, Jesus, Moscow, Napoleon, Russia, Vladimir Putin
My Russia has two faces, the sad one that breaks my heart and the cultured, noble face of Muscovite who queue for hours, in horrid cold, so to get into city’s museums…
Amazing cultural heritage awaits you there – from sledge in which Napoleon fled from Russia in 1812, having underestimated the fatal impact of Russian winter’s frost to Egyptian mummies and Grasser’s playful Moresca dancers…
Officially one of the ugliest monuments in the world was built in honor of Peter the Great, who oversees the river, having turned his back to the Cathedral in which Pussy Riot performed the infamous ‘punk prayer’…
Russian spiritual leaders from the times long bygone – rebuilt in statues of sand – just shake their heads to all of that and sigh into the wind of changes…
My Russia
legless beggar in Moscow’s subway
moves around on a wheeled stand
made of wood
he can not afford a wheelchair
the military uniform he is wearing
is covered in blood stains
his eyes are alert, his jaw bone – strong
you can imagine him as a captain
or even a colonel
once upon a time in Afghanistan
maybe it was curses of Afghan mothers that got him
maybe he was just dressed up as a soldier
by the underworld barons
of Russia
in pain, dropped on her knees
blind old woman, her head covered with black scarf
is hiding from the cameras and patrolling guards
high above her head she holds a picture of a tired Jesus.
Roma accordion player
wrenches subway’s heart
with his music
while
a homeless man is crying in his sleep
at the entrance to the platform
in my head, Buddha says to Nietzsche:
“Karma is inevitable,
But I feel their pain as my own..”
Nietzsche shakes his head, saying
“These are little people,
their suffering is – irrelevant. ”
I close my eyes and pray
to believe that
God does know what He’s doing.
Copyright ©Lena Ruth Stefanovic 2012. All rights reserved.
Thanks for this Lena. Language can be so much more than just communicating with others. For me it creates feelings,celebrations, understanding… and you can do it with eloquence… I can hear the accordian player in the subways underneath the triumphs & failures above 🙂
Thank you, dear Jim! Thank you so much for your words – felt through, festive words of understanding ❤