Watching Boris

Matti Salminen
looks like a crumpling tower
swaying and staggering around the stage
while a hundred faces
of little Dimitri
loom behind

looks like a giant fetus
when he falls down
curls up
and begs the child ghost
to go away to go away

He's got Boris down cold
poor little big man
who wanted to be king so bad
he had a ten year old
stabbed to death

It didn't seem so awful at the time--
that little delegated murder--
after all, he'd seen his master Ivan
roast his enemies
over a slow fire
reciting psalms
as he turned the spit.

Poor Boris
thought he could play Tzar Ivan
hahahaha
not pop-eyed enough
not dead-meat cold enough
not lost enough

Just a little second hand murderer
who still had a little piece of heart left
a flaming little piece of heart
like a match in cupped hands
that would not be quenched
even as he stumbled around
in the windy boots
of a monster