Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LETTERS TO YESENIN: 5 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: LUSTRA. OFFICIALLY THE COLD COMES FROM MANITOBA
Last Line: WITH ENDLESS THIRST.
Subject(s): COLD; DRINKS & DRINKING; RUSSIA; YESENIN, SERGEI (1895-1925); WINE; SOVIET UNION; RUSSIANS;
Lustra. Officially the cold comes from Manitoba; yesterday at sixty knots. So
that the waves mounted the breakwater. The first snow. The farmers and
carpenters in the tavern with red, windburned faces. I am in there playing the
pinball machine watching all those delicious lights flutter, the bells ring. I
am halfway through a bottle of vodka and am happy to hear Manitoba howling
outside. Home for dinner I ask my baby daughter if she loves me but she is too
young to talk. She cares most about eating as I care most about drinking. Our
wants are simple as they say. Still when I wake from my nap the universe is
dissolved in grief again. The baby is sleeping and I have no one to talk my
language. My breath is shallow and my temples pound. Vodka. Last October in
Moscow I taught a group of East Germans to sing "Fuck Nixon," and we were quite
happy until the bar closed. At the newsstand I saw a picture of Bella
Akhmadulina and wept. Vodka. You would have liked her verses. The doorman
drew near, alarmed. Outside the KGB floated through the snow like arctic bats.
Maybe I belong there. They won't let me print my verses. On the night train to
Leningrad I will confess everything to someone. All my books are remaindered and
out of print. My face in the mirror asks me who I am and says I don't know.
But stop this whining. I am alive and a hundred thousand acres of birches
around my house wave in the wind. They are women standing on their heads.
Their leaves on the ground today are small saucers of snow from which I drink
with endless thirst.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net