GOGOL EYES

You had this dream
about Gogol's eyes

amassed with manuscripts
weighed down by guilt

on an Arbat snow
he had a vivid vision

that his pocket watch
was lost in the other world

in a repentant soliloquy
he became Hamlet

in the space of his last minute
he spoke to Pushkin

waves of tears
to Fyodor in punishment

garments of the rag picker
on his rented wagon

what in a matter of time
do words obey.