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to churchill they were
horrific symbols
each representing
a million dead souls
lost in the famine

a wild estimate
based on a banal
gesture it could have
meant anything per-
haps stalin was just

showing off his jazz
hands synchronized to
music that an old
stick-up-his-ass bull-
dog couldn’t hear &

wouldn’t understand
if he did maybe
he wasn’t listening
to churchill at all
but was looking for

dirt under his nails
or hangnails also
it bears mentioning
that he might have been
simply waving off

the server heading
their way to ask them
about dessert what
if stalin widely
known to suffer bouts

of depression held
up both hands to say
stop stop let’s not talk
about such sad stuff
today then clutching

his hat to his heart
he said why not ask
me about my hair
instead tell the truth
doesn’t it look great

history shows it was
thick black & wavy
like a cool night breeze
rustling through wheatfields
of the collectives

on the russian steppes

                to Michael Parenti