Untitled
(December 54)

 

Mason Hoffenberg

Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 121 in December, 2009.
 

The men all listen and Stalin is over
Stalin’s death with flowers 
                             settles,
Bright breath and his eyes point 
And the sky blasts open like a shattered glass.
Brutal, as his eyes take aim his left side is that 
Facing half of death it flutters like a bird.
Then will the journals be will let you know
He flies no miles an hour and the steel sprang out
The statues lost their names. 
If he went out a morning looking for it red 
Then everything he saw was redly drenched 
Till he was driven like a rivet 
Home Christ Miserable palace and Stalin’s death
Listened for him like a gorgeous revolution.
And his eyes went down
They put him like a man into a corpse
And the sidewalk stops the people sprawl like stars upon the pavement