ETA RUSSIA
Ashok Niyogi
In summer the vodka kiosk
Beneath my flat
Has an open-air watermelon stall
And Azeris (1) with golden teeth
Cheat you on the kilo.
But redder and sweeter they could not be,
The juice trickling down your chin
As you spit out pips on to the roadside grass
And sneak a drink from your vodka bottle-
Transportation into sweet heaven.
All sticky and drunk
You snooze in the sun
************
Attempting a swallow from your bottle
While staring at the ceiling
On the upper bunk of a Rusian train-
The angle has to be precise
Otherwise you will choke and splutter
While the world below you
Eats Kalbasa (2) and boiled eggs.
Their angle need not be so precise
Because on the train floor,
They have made their beds.
***************
This time we stayed at a hotel
By the frozen sea with fixed waves
As if somebody had said, ‘statue’.
We walked upon the sea towards
A lone fisherman who had drilled a hole
In the ice
And with his rod, been moderately successful
Even though he was thoroughly drunk.
******************
We had this brandy warmed up for us
On a spirit lamp, the beaker at just that angle
And I smelt a Cuban cigar.
The brandy was warm and warmer inside
But the cigar was too much
For my Indian tongue.
**********************
Park Kulturi to Park Kulturi
That was our riverboat station
Past the lawns of Mosfilmovskaya
Weaving between the walls of the Kremlin
Kissing the Balchug Kempinsky.
************************
A bite in the wind as we sat on the top deck,
The new glorious church under construction,
Flotsam on the waters of the Muskva.
Those were sunny days.
(1) Azeris - People of Azerbaijan
(2) Kalbasa - A large sausage usually shared.
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