Old Man In Grozny Poem by David McLansky

Old Man in Grozny

The old man crouches by the fire
Composed of bits of wood,
Gathered from the battered square,
The shattered neighborhood;

The apartments stand,
Their concrete ripped
Like gutted rotten teeth;
Now a home to the wind,
To the sparrow and the thief;

The old man huddles by the fire
And sucks his cigarette,
Grizzled and beyond repair
With Winter coming yet;

All about him lays debris,
Rubble in the cold;
Someone thought to go war;
Not a good time to be old.