The poets in droves
Lick their pens
Succumbing to poems
Demanding to be heard.
This must be April,
National Poetry Month.
*******
Hey Putin,
Sit back a week or two
With your Russian predecessors
Etched in the world with admiration and honor
Unlike tyrants, murderers, war criminals
Covered with ashes and human blood,
On dusty back shelves of Russian history.
Listen to Tchaikovsky’s symphonies –
Spend an evening with Swan Lake –
Get on your yacht with Leo Tolstoy
With War and Peace.
You wish to be the most admired?
The most honored statue in all of Russia?
Be amongst the true greats in your history books?
Pick up your pen, Putin.
Poets were feared more than the KGB
During days of famine and war.
Pick up your pen, Putin,
Write a poem or two or more.
On the shelves of 891.71,
Between Tsvetaeva and Pushkin
There is space for you.
A statue of Putin?
In St. Petersburg ?
Putin: Poet of Peace
Covered white
From Birds of Peace
Soaring above.
©frances kakugawa
(Written after seeing images in Ukraine)