Wild dogs run freely in Odessa,
they fight over trash behind the opera.
Dogs clash for dominance on the Potemkin steps,
and bitches bear their litters in the quiet courtyards.
In their dozens they raid the bins;
an entrepreneur cadges for meat
smelled in a shopper's bags.
The cats scurry across Odessa's streets,
solitary sleek masters of their quarters.
Hiding by day to court at night,
leaping to the height of a wall;
there must be kittens out of sight.
The rats come out at night in Odessa,
ships moored in the harbour
guard their ropes with shields.
They have no friends on the streets,
every hand, tooth and claw is raised
to destroy their kind.
The oligarchs reap their billions
from the industry of Odessa;
shiploads of lumber and ore loaded,
containers of goods delivered.
The smokey night-clubs and restaurants,
hotels and casinos are their haunts,
and mansions beyond the city limit.
Their kind founded the city,
managed and harvested
the centuries of labourers.
Prince, czar, commissar,
it is all the same to one who pays.
Odessa, parasitized and oppressed,
goes to work and to the opera,
promenades on Primorsky Boulevard,
and hopes, hopes,
hopes.
Author notes
Photo: by the author, Primorsky Blvd by night
In the former USSR in the 1990s, if you had a few million dollars, it was easy to make a few billion. Honest people did not have that kind of money.
In a list
A contest entry
- Allpoetry and Winklings combined Autumn Poet Laureate. by Lyndon.
1830 points, ended December 8, 2007, 16 entries
Bronze trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Thanks for reading!
Comments
1 - 13 of 13
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Very Informative/Educational
Being well written by you goes without saying. -
What a great poem! Really enjoyed reading this poem. Discovered you from a poem written about you by R.S. Adams Jr. (also an excellent tribute poem)! Congratulations on the bronze!
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Thank you Maggie!
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A Poetical Sharing ...
of not only a current sort-of history lesson of Odessa but a fine study of natural and social relationships where the "Alpha" animal always seem to come out on top. The imagery was sound and enlightening. Thanks for all. Good luck in the contest. joy
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Sounds like a place I wouldn't want to go even to make money.
poverty and filth go hand in hand, we have to Care,
"Goes to work and to the opera" sounds very humanistic.
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Sad, but true is every country.
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Yes ...
honest people seldom have money period.
Just kidding. Interesting write here. This has the same tone to it as Margaret Mitchell looking back on the Confederacy.
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Thank you Jim. Some inequities irk me more than others; but we know that philanthopy is slow to enter the minds of the nouveau riche.
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I walked that dark street with you, careful where I stepped, understanding my small place in the scheme of things matters little or none at all, for the element of Time resides in those streets , and I am newly there. The experience however, fits in without stress among the temporary places I have been, among the animals that are more at home than I.
It is remarkable how the simple listing of its facts can cast a spell like that.
Totally sucessful.
Terry
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Beautiful work ...
as always! I loved the texturedness of your poem and the skillful usage of poetic devices.
Well done, my friend, well done!
Love
Myra
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Thank you, my friend,
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This certainly does transport me into another time and place - and feels very foreign/old world, though it does remind me of some of Sandburg's work. It's interesting how you have grouped the oligarchs with the feral beasts, linking their greed. Technically, I feel it is a fine free verse piece. All the best in this comp!
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Thanks so much Marcy, indeed, it is a different kind of place, striving to be European. Feral animals are low on the list of problems for the city administration.
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