Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­      You Russian Poets

          Only in Russia is poetry respected. It gets people killed. Is
          there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive
          for ******?

                                            -Osip Mandelstam,
                          murdered by the Soviet state for his poetry

We have gotten into trouble over you
Back in the Cold War and now this hot one
But maybe the investigators’ fear
Was not Communism, but mere literacy

O Mandelstam, you died for words and truth
They say, dear Tsvetaeva, that you hanged yourself
And Gumilyov, they simply had you shot –
The Silver Age in truth was one of lead

In America no one dies for poetry
Working fast food can be a death penalty, though