My ship waded through endless night
     into Murmansk
The Avrora crackling like furious skeletons on fire
Car headlights on daytime snow
Do you remember the upturned fish
On Ukrainian hooks
Tempered with Finnish vodka
Threadbare towels that pretend at the ice
Mustaches catch electricity and glow
I shiver and dream of summer in Kiev
I covet mosquitoes on a Voronesh ranch
One kilogram of prime ribs
Target shooting in tall grass
I am an ice-worm with twenty cats
But this winter there are no rats.

                  

Avrora: northern lights