Revolution failed
Power and wealth for the elite
workers paid in grain
Perestroika came
A maladministered mess
Glasnost went opaque
What now for Russians
pawns at the whim of poser
tough guy ex-spy
Human Rights abused
Authoritarian rule
Misdirected hate
Five rings at Sochi
rainbow colored but not gay
happy folk avoid
Pussy Riot free
Who looks like a pussy now
Vladimir Putin
Slav humanity
face existential gloom in
tsarist metaphor
There’s no freedom here
autocrats and oligarchs
own Mother Russia
Fugitive Fragments 
Spot on.
Thank you – himself and Yushchenko are licking their wounds this week for a change…
It’s funny, just yesterday I read a review of the book “Duty”, by former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The review included this line:
‘And when Gates, a lifelong Soviet expert, met face to face with the Russian president Vladimir Putin, he found himself staring…into the eyes of “a stone-cold killer.”’
Thank you, Mike, for your ‘Likes’ of many of my own blog posts.
Thanks JDB. At another time in history Putin would have been a capable Stalin. He is circumstantially linked to the deaths of Galina Starovoitova in 1998 to Natalia Estemirova 2009 (see Wiki) and nine others in between (incl. his mistress Alina Kabayeva). This does not include his targeted bombings of Checknya and we’ll never know what he got up to in his day job. Contra to the observant Gates, Dubya said (Slovenia 2001): “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very trustworthy…I was able to get a sense of his soul”. Enough said.
However… isn’t he entertaining somehow? I dig anything Putin–can’t help myself. @D
I agree that some of this behavior can be viewed with a laugh, his rehearsed PR ‘exclusives’ in particular. Thanks for checking this out and commenting.
Contemporary situation described well. the first three lines grip and hit hard
Thanks nl, I find it hard to fathom the situation there and can’t even guess the prognosis for their plight.
Satirical (just a tad bit), with stinging wit.
I am reminded of the 140% jokes that have become a meme. Easy to laugh about, but a indicative of something serious and festering, especially to those who are in the thick of it.
Kicking myself for not thinking of the 140%. I also missed the ‘mafia’. This piece could be the gift that keeps on giving – OMG, an infinite haiku series! And one again you’ve seen right through it to the sad reality – thanks Iris.
🙂
My goal was to reeducate myself after chemotherapy. My recall of words was so poor. I fell into despair. I have been reading blog poetry for a year. Your word play is my favorite. You break rules, right and left. Thanks Mike.
Delighted to be thanked and delighted to have my work recognised by such a prodigious reader of poetry. Your kind comment is very much appreciated.
That’s the history of Russia in the past 100 years in a nutshell… of 8 haiku poems.
Ha – like 8 Babushka dolls maybe! Much thanks VanH but I just followed a single theme for a country that’s rich in many other ways.
I’ve known a number of criminologists who’ve studied Russia and the whole situation there seems quite surreal (e.g., bribery part of everyday living). I love Russian literature (especially Dostoevsky), but I can’t find a love for the country (not that I’ve visited). Your haiku series makes contemporary the whole awful saga!
Ah yes, what they term the ‘mafia’ there completely slipped my mind (possibly deserving of a dedicated piece?) slave trafficking etc. Bleak, but don’t forget that the average folk are just like you and me, albeit tempered by hardship in the thousand years since the Mongols. And yeah, Dostoevsky’s Definitely Da Dude! Thanks RT