The Stalin Epigram

    Our lives no longer feel ground under them.

    At ten paces you can't hear our words.

    But whenever there's a snatch of talk

    it turns to the Kremlin mountaineer，

    the ten thick worms his fingers，

    his words like measures of weight，

    the huge laughing cockroaches¹ on his top lip，

    the glitter of his boot-rims.

    Ringed with a scum of chicken-necked bosses

    he toys with the tributes of half-men.

    One whistles， another meows， a third snivels.

    He pokes² out his finger and he alone goes boom.

    He forges decrees in a line like horseshoes，

    One for the groin， one the forehead， temple， eye.

    He rolls the executions on his tongue like berries.

    He wishes he could hug them like big friends from home.