Stalingrad, 1943

letters aren't written anymore but i opened this make believe envelope and read this make-believe letter of words and blood and roses that wilt in November because they don't have much to do 

despite the chimneys 

and the rundown plastic diorama 

our songs of love

shall become one

and creatures of the night

shall perish by the light

and everything is dusk and everywhere there's this mad daze that aims for the star and dies in cold defeat

home, the last time as i saw it, 

was a place of much dust and sunset

and now i hear of Stalingrad

they have named it something else

i don't remember

i'm bad with names

i don't remember your name

so, they fought and won

and they fought and lost

and the sun rises in pain

and the moon drowns in pain

and monkeys chatter on tenement roofs

and people invent radios and plaster of Paris 

and soldiers stare at sweaty mermaids with boobs of gold

and sailors sway with sunflowers and daffodils in dandy delirium

and cannonballs bring news of hunger to blue and yellow sonnets of doom

for tonight we shall speak of love, dogs, James Dean and antibiotics

tonight we shall not unleash Stalingrad  

speak, if you can

tides rise, like mercy, they worship your name

like mercy, they adore ghostcandles and timeworn jazz

sisters of love and brothers of love locked in one endless kiss

and a little Ferris Wheel whirls past the ears 

on naked hours of night when there's no sound or fury

and a big eye moves our shadows across 

the town of the dead

where rats from gutters send light of life to clouds of death 

beware the monsters who ate your roses

beware my eyebrows fixed on you

beware Orion when he chases the seven sisters

and they won in Stalingrad when all was lost

and they lost in Stalingrad when all was won

empty, like life and death,

i stand at the center and await your wisdom

you stand at the center and await my sword

a ruby shines in its smokey hilt

a princess smiles through the windows

as flies buzz in from unknown shores

and sit on these frames of flesh and stone

like sunlight, in eternal agony

glory be thine, burn this letter

for Stalingrad shall ever be

like Stalingrad that never was.