On the other bank, stands Lil Do
I dunno where I’m headed
In the endless column
I’m in bear guts
The bear is in a huge rubber ducky
From Ho Chi Minh
In the duck is a Fabergé egg
An egg from the storefront of a 24/7 jewelers on Nevsky Prospekt
On the other bank, stands Lil Do
I dunno where I’m headed
In the endless column
I’m wearing my father’s belt
The belt is faux leather
Skin on my head
The head lives in a rental
I’m lying in a bar
On a couch wearing my father’s belt
On the other bank, stands Lil Do
I dunno where I’m headed
Smoothly flowing along with the column
+++
And I love fat flowers so much
And I love fat eyes so much
You are telling me complicated things
You are telling me complicated words.
I’m outlining letters several times
My darling, beloved pork, baby-beef
I’m snapping and kissing,
Torturing.
+++
When the spring comes,
I’ll quit smoking, I promise
My heart longs for new tattoos
And my soul is bursting to get out
If you take these in
And it doesn’t show out
Then have yourself crucified by cocaine on a Moscow boulevard
When June comes,
Brining in the rest of the colorful summer
We will leave stale salons and studios
Once again.
Laughing around trains stations
Rip epaulettes off demobs
And stirring MDA, ketamine and vine into Perrier
Gone the summer,
Comes the long-expected Russian fall
Leaves are falling in Tekstilshchiki District and Neskuchny Garden
Cocktail bars serve
Absinthe and glitch wreck you just fine
With cough syrups
Bronchitis, the doom and the gloom.
When the winter comes
Bringing in the piercing December,
The symphony of the long cold winter will lastly kick in
Do not pop ketamine with detergents
It will mess with your head
And Demeters will haunt you till spring.
+++
Run over by your mother
Three blocks down from your home
I am lying on the road
Your mum’s breath seized up
Missis Keywest cannot believe
What has just happened
Looking around and seeing nothing,
She looks around one last time, staggers back into the car, turns the key, goes past me and flees.
I am looking at your receding Texas plate
The Dutch tilt gives me nausea
Missis Keywest, here’s a tenner for Tony
Can I drop by after lunch, if I’m feeling any better?
+++
I buy Russian wherever I go
Asia, Europe, Africa or Goa
On the French Riviera,
Buy the Russian goods,
Russian, Russian – means it has a soul
Russian cocaine – makes your soul sing
Russian cocaine – makes your eyes shine
Russian cocaine – on vacation or at work
Russian cocaine – has the Russian soul
I believe the day will come
When the grand imperial flag
Will fly over the world
Red, white, blue
Wipe the sweat from you tiered face
And recall the childhood
Barefoot, awash with beer
And snort a line, good friend
Russian cocaine – makes your soul sing
Russian cocaine – makes your mouth smile
Russian cocaine – I fuck the system over
And don’t give a fuck about it
+++
You mean that obscure hijacked flight
That blew up over the Karelian Isthmus
Killing some unknown people
Whom barely anybody mourned?
I did it for the birds.
And as remains and carry-ons
Were descending onto swampy forest clearings
The skies roared as they never did before
And flocks of seagulls took home red droplets on their pointed wings
+++
Moscow, 1967, watercolor 30x40, unknown artist
We are in the drawing
On a bench near a day hospital
waiting for him to come out
Nearby a child holds a ball on the pavement
A woman with a stroller
Put her bag on our bench
A babushka in a charcoal coat and a headscarf
Tightly holds my mother in her arms
I’m not there yet
I’m not there yet
A fantastic composition
