Poetry: God Votes for Perestroika

GOD VOTES FOR PERESTROIKA

(On Earthquake in Armenia)

The grandest jury—Trinity—

Convened to hear the case:

The situation’s critical;

It’s time I showed my ace.

The verdict passed was clearly “Guilty as hell”.

At once the mighty fist like doomsday fell.

On a proper scale the punishment was metered out:

Three whole cities all but flattened out.

All over Earth people shuddered with dread:

A hundred thousand reported dead.

Good God, perhaps, would not have gone as far as that—

Substandard jerry building saw to that.

But still, the voice was heard amid the people screaming under rubble:

See? It doesn’t pay to sow ethnic trouble.

And should you find the rescue effort not so brisk,

Remember, God has spoken. Why run the risk

Of wooing our undoing

Since this ruin is His doing?

And anyway, what’s all this fuss about a mere tenth of a million?

We’re used to being killed in scores of millions!

I sum up for you, folks:

You’ve got to face your faults, folks.

You’ve fought too many foes,

You’ve fallen foul of Fate, folks.

Our Lord has shown His hand all too clearly.

There’s no sense really

In your paying yet more dearly

(I’ll explain it plain:

The remainder slain in vain.)

You’d be better off heeding a piece of advice:

No two ways about

Getting out

Of the vice.

So join the perestroika

To drag my Russian troika.

I hate to lose face in a race!

Alexander V Demidov

15 December 1988