my poem 'Inside Russia Today' like? not?
INSIDE RUSSIA TODAY
Yesterday I saw that new movie
the one about Vladimir, a Russian film-maker
working directly under Josef Stalin.
Vladimir was commissioned a film on Raskilnikof,
ambiguous anti-hero of the Czarist novel,
the metaphysical pawnshop killer.
He would show, must show, how, why
bourgeois society set the stage for brutality
onto which his sick protagonist would walk.
Simultaneously, to appease his conscience,
hiding in the mind from Party slogans,
he must make a statement, however subtle.
Vladimir’s script had made Raskilnikof, played
by Alex Druschevenov, into a movie director
wishing to document the pawn-broker trade.
Other important appearances include
the Bolshoi Ballet, dancing background
to the electrifying murder scene.
It’s hard to deny catharsis
as the bloody Raskilnikof, camera in hand,
heaves his Russian ax into the Volga.
The muted bells of great St. Basil,
over the year’s first snowfall, on Red Square,
where Vladimir, passing Lenin’s Tomb