[A poem by Sergei Stratanovsky]

A Sociological Treatise in Verse on the Phenomenon of Alcoholism

This 1971 poem by Sergei Stratanovsky, one of the best living Russian poets in my opinion, ends somewhat like this:

And the man down the pavement
Creeps with a sodden head
Grieving and puking
By all categorized a swine
Society’s ulcer
Existential trash

Or, to take a different angle, “the refuse of existence.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *