In the former secret city
Of Sverdlovsk,
An inconsolable cast-iron soldier sits.
One hand supports a Kalashnikov,
The other a beleaguered brow.
The monument recalls Fuseli's Cyclops,
Collapsed,
Utterly defeated by Ulysses.
His sheep are gone
And so much more:
His single eye. The monument remembers
Soviet soldiers killed in combat
In the Afghan war.
© 2006 Richard Norman
has published poems in such journals as The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, and Pittsburgh Quarterly. He lives in South Korea, where he is working on his first poetry collection.
