When elephants fight for tusks,
a
sculptor grins and cuts
that
dirty little war in stone.
Ancient
deer put down their heads
and
drive antlers into water.
The
lips of one river
touch
the neck of another.
Laugh,
Khlebnikov. Laugh it out!
Laugh
it forth, Mendelstam, laugh.
Laugh,
Akhmatova, unlaughfully laugh.
Laugh,
you be-laughingly laughers.
Laugh
of the languished laughniks.
Laugh
of the counterfeit-lauhghkins.
Laugh
of the dis-laughing laughlets.
When
you're all fed up with laughter,
oh
laugh-raptors,
you
put on golden wings and fling
yourselves
into the melancholy sun.
The
sweet maidens of India
and
the fragile shadows of Romania
kiss
your feathers. They offer you
black
Vedas and lost songs of little gods.
Where
are the catechisms,
the
eagle and the crow?
The
Ganges and the Danube flow.
They
dance laugh-sambas to the sea.
When
smoke turns to dust,
rivers
and laughter
turn
to stone.
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