SEVASTOPOL

We entered the church
of all old,young
and non believers
those whose ancestors
survived the Russo-
Japaneses war
on both sides
by intermarrying
or by some faith,
here with great fear
trembling brides of Chagall
still walking
on in wheel chairs
ex generals ancestors,
grandchildren of peasants
and aristocrats who follow
Leo Tolstoy,
those on the steppes
of exile, ex cadets,
soldiers of misfortune
Party cadres
petty bureaucrats
boys in white blouses
from Siberian prisons
from health spas
with bandaged incisions,
collaborators of all kinds,
an orphan from Rostock
surviving fascism
who studied endomorphism
when his life was on the rocks
curried Rosicrucian's doctrines
Confucianism, Ezra Pound
and the Arctic dolphins
in the docks of Russia
mindless except of Prussian
childhood prayers,
Jewish souls whose house maid
secretly baptized her,
graying emigres from South Africa
searching for the green diamond
or opal but realized
after being analyzed
in shock treatment
money was only lost stock
even in the China drug trade
of Vladivostock
a beautiful loser of the wheel,
Vlad from the Riviera
who found then lost
the most valuable postage stamp
in the Huguenot cellars
and fortunately lived on
after food stamps from Vichy,
those ancestors of Hugo
who played a piano
for the left hand
by Ravel as prisoners
destined by law
for examination
for experimentation
termination
and extermination
but whose souls live on
here at Sevastopol.