The Dancing Bears Return Poem by M.L. Emmett

The Dancing Bears Return

Rating: 4.5


When Leningrad went retrograd
and resurrected saintly
the dancing bears came back

Cub-trained on hot coals
they quickly learn to Fred Astaire
rhythmic patterns on blistered paws

So, in St. Petersburg, the corpse exhumed
owners bring brown bears on leads
to grass patches by the Neva

Tourist photographs - money in the fur-box hat
wheezy accordion protesting the bitter wind
Everyone sells everything in St. Petersburg

Teachers with no pensions sell their books
Babushkas sell knitted bits and bobs
Young girls and boys sell their bodies

The Mafia sells priceless dreams of blood and misery
The orthodox incense sells the golden mysteries
promising death will be better than this life

And every ordinary person
scraping an existence in the cold
dances with the bears
waiting for the next revolution

First Published in Social Alternative

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M.L. Emmett

M.L. Emmett

Reading Berkshire England
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