'I Used To Be Russian', by David Lauterstein

I used to be Russian
About a hundred years ago.
I was a revolutionary.
The sky was a different blue then
And the trees were not the same green.

We felt history like wind.
We inhaled it.
The air itself was new.
The sun rose about the fields
And made the horses turn brown.

We worked like slaves
But we lived as men.
Mothers had love in their eyes.
We cheered the new world being born.
Birth was easier in those days.
We gave birth while gracefully walking
In skirts of black and red.

All lines rhymed.
We wrote words for secret passage,
Inscribed them on the insides of our jaws.
We paid attention to the moon
And the transparent geometry of the stars.

Can’t we shake off the scars
Like a golden spine could
Become a tree,
Shake off last years’ leaves,
Then just glow?

Can’t we just inhale
The last hundred years
And exhale, with a sigh,
Picking ourselves up
And move forward as if
Not a day had passed?

The revolution still waits for us.
The friend with open arms
Is still smiling.

David Lauterstein has recently teamed up with Dr. Jeffrey Rockwell to release the book "The Memory Palace of Bones" through Singing Dragon Press.

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik, from Wikimedia Commons