Issue 45: Spring 2019

THE STATUE OF ANNA AKHMATOVA

I find Anna Akhmatova / in St. Petersburg

I find Anna Akhmatova

in St. Petersburg,

measuring the phrase,

the black ice of death

across the river from Kresty

Prison. She leans back against

what could be a gravestone,

arms folded beneath her breasts,

her legs stretched out, resting

on her heels. She’s watching boats

disintegrate on the river,

their oiliness like drowned prisms.

She’s wearing a stone dress with wide

sleeves – stone face, stone eyes.

If there is flesh behind her lips,

it’s sealed by the salt of years

and the spasms of things

never written down. I bend my knees

just a little, ask Carol to take a picture

that I’ll add to my tatty photo album

with shots of me snuggled up

to Brecht in Berlin and Neruda in Valparaiso,

one more riddle

for eventual dementia to solve.

 

About the author

Barry Dempster, twice nominated for the Governor General’s Award, is the author of 16 collections of poetry, two volumes of short stories, two novels, and a children’s book. He won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry in 2005 for his book The Burning Alphabet. In 2010 and 2015, he was a finalist for the Ontario Premiers Award for Excellence in the Arts.