Do you remember our pilgrimage to Swan Lake
The eye-glasses the miniature martinis and the box
The afternoon slant of a pale spring sun
Across the tallest windows of the Hermitage
That lit up Monet and Manet
Do you remember the nakedness of Picasso
Trotters hanging from a kitchen ceiling
Gloomily smoked in the Petersburg smog
The cultivation of sun by Van Gogh.
Fireworks on Victory Day
Dilapidated cripples
Three hundred Ruble pensions
Medals drooping from emaciated chests
Powder-puffed ladies with drooping mustache lines
Ice-cream vendors
Gas-filled balloons
Wheelchairs donated by Germany
I climb your sofa
And reach for the window
To let the outside in
Do you remember the diaspora of stars?
I give you a solitaire
To keep the poverty away.
