Navalny

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN

Navalny

 

The long thin fingers

Of the Russian dictator

Reached out at last for the throat

Of his leading opponent

 

From an induced coma

In a hospital bed in Berlin

Navalny takes his place

In a long line of political victims

Journalists and dissidents

Imprisoned poisoned or gunned down

On the barren streets of Moscow

 

Will he live to speak again?

Will he live to be silenced?

Or will he simply pass to the hall

Of martyrdom to be remembered

For his undying courage?

 

Why now? 

 

After years of vocal opposition

Mass gatherings on the streets of protest

 

Why now? 

 

Could it be the silence of the White House?

 

A world in crisis is fertile ground

For a dictator’s brutality

 

(Alexei Navalny is in critical

condition in Berlin 8/23/20)