A STUDENT IN A CAFE
(December, 1990)

Reading a cyrillic keyboard
with dialogues
in a cafe frequented
by students at Cambridge
he strives for anonymity
tells me he is Andre
and is bilingual
originally from Moscow
who strokes a cat
and laughs hystericallly
at my American jokes
tells me his parents
who were critics
of the regime
were taken away
after the war
as Siberian exiles
and never returned,
then wonders if the second
chapter of his life's dream
will add up to more
than a nightmare of indifference
since the thaw
as snow falls
outside my dorm window
he puts on his fur hat
under a seaworthy sun
appears on the pier
by the sweeping ice-floes
yet somehow Andre
with his gallows humor
must have hope
as we pass by meadows
and empty fields,
he lived his early life
only by fearful rumors
now wanting to watch
the thorny trees with mistletoe
and carry an Achilles shield
to prove his agility
to be a guy above the fray
Andre takes up fencing,
as flakes from grey sky
move across the lacrosse field
winter wakes to be reborn
only seeing shadows instead,
Andre wants to do stand up
to protest injustice
still feels like an orphan,
sings out a Russian peasant song
along the blue Lake
with sky birds sensing bread
as squirrels search for acorns
this poet removes the leaves
by my house with his rake
Andre helps me
but his heart still aches