Limerick: Once the Great Grandson of Queen Victoria
Once the great grandson* of Victoria
Heir to the throne of tsarist Russia
Saved by “Doc” Rasputin
Killed by Lenin-Stalin
Lo! Heir to Queen Vic’s haemophilia!
*Tsarevich Alexei of the Romanov royal house.
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2013
Categories:
tsarist, history, Grandson,
Form: Limerick
AMBER CHANDELIER
Late October and dark trees
Bare of branch and bark
Mask an airy golden volume yet:
A leafy brightness in autumn’s aura.
Gloom of day but the spreading maple’s
As if seen through trellised panes:
A Russian chandelier in the Amber Room,
Each frond glowing, reflecting the uncertain light.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NOTE
The Amber Room is a part of a Russian tsarist palace called Tsarskoe Selo that, in terms of grandeur and excessive opulence, outstrips even Versailles. Tsarskoe Selo is in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Categories:
tsarist, nature,
Form: Verse
Kulaks never acquisced* Stalin's regime of hierarchical Russia,
for it made them very prosperous growing grains for brewing Vodka,
and because of the prosperity, they seemed extremely rambanctious*...
unlikely the poorer peasants who we were less loyal and ambitious.
Lenin, he fearless archaist, rose to power to build an atheist empire,
where no religion of any kind was tolerated and thus the persecution
of Christians and Jews began...including the laughing and defying hooligan*;
had he mandated religious freedom, there wouldn't have been unrest and dire!
Stalin wasn't as tall as in sculpture, but was terribly feared in all Europe,
not even Hitler with his powerful war machines could defeat him without hindsight*;
like Mussolini's regime, it came to an abrupt halt: his statue torn down in daylight...
jubilant civilians revenged his cruel government by using the sturdiest rope!
Categories:
tsarist, death, fear, people, political,
Form: Rhyme