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Light’s Glare on Snake’s Lair

by Pamela Toomey

Hear me, O Hermes, haunt of in-between sites: 
‘Twixt knavery and bravery, very sharp stake;
‘Twixt demagogue and dialogue, vulgar gun sights;
‘Twixt bayonets and baritones, guilty knife smites.
Clear space in the lair of the forked-tongue snake
 
For luster that glistens from lodestar’s tripart:
Sviatlana soars straight from bleeding land’s ache,
Maria, Veranika, hope’s shining restart.
They hear with the heart as a healing art.
Clear space in the lair of the forked-tongue snake
 
For civil engagement despite regime goons.
Their bolt on free speech fluent hand gestures break;
Articulate runes flow from mute finger-tunes,
Thwarting two-headed Hydra: tyrant and tycoons.
Clear space in the lair of the forked-tongue snake
 
For theaters to flourish despite despot’s binds
Making mother’s tongue mum and truth-telling fake.
Brave actor, truth-bearer, genuflects and unwinds
Real “thought crimes” awash in balaclava blinds.
Clear space in the lair of the forked-tongue snake
 
For sanctions to sink coterie who abets.
Ban access to SWIFT, apply the foot brake
So basilisk’s lucre gets snared in the nets
That trap Russian asps grabbing potash assets.
Clear space in the lair of the forked-tongue snake.
 
‘Twixt tyrant and teacher, vent and invent,
Intrepid Belarusians choose to partake
Of elections unrigged, dialogue that’s intent 
On self-determination, change that’s meant
To air out the lair of the forked-tongue snake.
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Gutsy Gadflies

(Rondeau Redoublé)

by Pamela Toomey

Gutsy gadfly gunned down by feral fear,
Ruble greed spurred truncheon crunch against pate,
Loathed bugbear survives lethal toxin smear,
Fierce foe defies poison-pants potentate.

Broad-backed Nemtsov bore a four-bullet fate,
Revealing the viper’s fragile veneer
Of virtue dressed in kind to liquidate
Gutsy gadfly gunned down by feral fear.

Beaten to a pulp for over a year,
Fearless Magnitsky got rubbed off the slate
Exposing state fraud; the slaughter was clear:
Ruble greed spurred truncheon crunch against pate.

Kremlin death squads seek to eliminate
Plucky Kara-Murza for czarist peer
Intent on nulling oversight. Checkmate:
Loathed bugbear survives lethal toxin smear.

The nerve of Navalny! Truth cost him dear,
Pilfering prince spoofed behind Palace-Gate.
Regardless of gulag, torture, and jeer,
Fierce foe defies poison-pants potentate.

Cagey beast ill governs still budding state
From caged bunker: disrupt and domineer,
Dismantle NATO, EU; hack and hate.
Instead spread Magnitsky Act everywhere!
Everywhere revere gutsy gadfly trait.