A Poem: Eternal Memory

 

I wrote this poem after spending some time reading Russian literature. I'm reading "War and Peace" right now, and up to around page 800. Other recent books I read was "Dead Souls" and "Crime and Punishment. I've enjoyed it. Ancestry did narrow down my DNA to Russian ancestry and Slovakian. I knew about the great-grandmother in the Slovakian orphanage. My concerns about war come out in this poem as well. 

Eternal Memory

Learned I was Russian 

as Ancestry

narrowed down the DNA,

This in addition to

the Slovakian great-grandmother rescued 

from the orphanage by the Austrian-Hungarian captain

who could speak 5 languages.

My origins arose out of the "evil empire"

with its dark woods, wolves and samovars

full of tea.

We'd light the red candles in a row

 but my father grew up

in St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox church

with the icons we lacked.

the Russians always loved their icons

kissing them,

gold thin leaf carefully laid

 Mary and Jesus in a circled embrace

The detente of the 1980s

has ended.

There always has to be a war

Oceania always need an enemy

even with a place that looks like the Midwestern woods

with onion domes rising above it.

The rerun of the Cuban missile crisis

The man with the jigsaw puzzle piece

on his head leading to the one riding

the horse shirtless. 

We watched "The Day After"

fearing it's realities

The wall came down

but the Cold War's back.

The third Rome awaited 

and the New American Century waned

Will the wrath of Russia await the

52 daughters of the revolution

always confronting.

The very old always send the young to die.

There were peace poles in gardens

vertically exclaiming "May Peace Prevail on Earth"

years ago, pounded into soil

"War is not healthy for children and living things" posters 

hung with care

however sadly

the antiwar movement vaporized

Some of us asked what happened

as those who used to hate war in the Middle East

now call for it,

forgetting the lessons of "War and Peace"

and the futility of it all.

Some worry that the Third Seal

slouches towards New York to be born

They take the bus, they cook the casserole

taking elevators in their apartment skyrises too

and no one ever learns.

We don't want to see a sunrise at 2am

knowing its all over.

The Russian Soul with no fake smiles

produced Tolstoy who spoke of the 

sacredness of life

they had the serfs who fought for freedom

freed in 1861

ending up in the red flag chasm

Until the USSR collapsed

and that Russia professor in 2010

claimed the same fate was coming here.

The chickens coming home to roost

In the nightmare the refrain came

"Its raining [missiles]

living in point zero

That giant bell was made

In the Passion of Andrei

ringing ever clear

Eternal Memory was to be grasped

All the churches here praising war

among blood moons and pretribulation dreams

Authoritarianism reigns

Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears

Too many Dead Souls listed for profit

If you don't go into the white light

do you become a ghost?

Oblomov was swindled

The Iconoclasts smashed the art

We wanted it back

We wanted life

and peace.