RUSSIAN  FRIENDS

Why go back miles
from the Kremlin
to the Crimea
like Catherine
to a village area
called Potemkin,
nor smile as a gremlin
with the twins
of Lenin or Stalin
an age full of crimes
and show trials,
return to a musical
Romantic time
the stage of Checkov
the lyrical Pushkin
and Tyutchev,
here you will live
knowing all your friends
and need not make
historical amends.