after reading Stanley’s Kunitz’s translations of Anna Akhmatova
for the contributors to The New Verse News
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| “He’s Threatened To Put Them In Jail”: Joe Biden Tells Katie Couric That Journalists Have Told Him Of Their Fears If Donald Trump Returns To White House —Deadline, February 22, 2024 |
Of course, they will jail
the journalists first
but the time will come
when you will pass your days
aware that the authorities
are letting you live
a circumscribed life,
a couple of years
of the woman at the window
of the apartment across the street
always fixing a stare
on you when you draw
your curtains open
an intimidating reminder
that whatever you do
on your cell and laptop
is under surveillance,
your movements tracked,
a then two, three years in,
impossible to miss,
the agents in the parked car
always quick to get out
to openly follow you,
one just a few steps
above you on the escalator
and never standing more
than four people away
on a crowded subway,
you beginning to wish
you dared to confront them
with your puzzlement
about how much they are paid,
the time at last coming
when, one of your shadows
sipping coffee four tables away,
a dear friend will fail
to show for the lunch
where you planned to lie
that you are too scared
to write any more poems,
not even in your head,
your friend not responding
to texts, you lingering
over your salad, dreading
the escorted ride home.
William Aarnes lives in Manhattan.