Vincent van Mechelen
RUSSIAN GAS
A burly businessman he is,
out for pleasure in the Ural Mountains,
shooting deer with lots of shots of vodka.
Nowadays he is a seasoned soldier
in the front line of money making,
champion of the new traditional order.
He likes to endear himself to his mate,
a heavily-armed Afghan War veteran;
adores his three-year-old post-Soviet son,
dressed up in full fighting gear.
People with a gay lifestyle?
He tightens his sweat-drenched towel.
"They should be killed," he says in disgust.
Befoggedly staring at the sauna floor,
he turns the taps in his grey chamber
on, o n, O N, ...
(With Mother Russia's fuel in his hands
it will be a cheap solution.)
"They should be gassed,"
the new nazi spits out.
|
69.MNE
|
Unfortunately, the story told in this poem is not fictitious.
It is, on the whole, a true story based on an account given by Justin
Rowlatt about a visit deep in the Ural Mountains of the Russian
Federation.
It was broadcast in the BBC program From Our Own Correspondent
on
69.04.7 / 18 January 2014.
(For the podcast see www.bbc.co.uk/[-]podcasts/series/fooc.)
The background picture shows an Auschwitz gas chamber.
(It is a reduction of the picture auschwitz5.jpg at
voiceseducation.org.)
|
©MVVM, 69-78 ASWW 
