One more year

Creative Writing Assignment: November 3rd, 2008

Today’s assignment was to write a freeverse poem about an unfamiliar location. The professor assigned the cities, I was given Irkutsk, Russia.

Background info: Irkutsk is a city in Siberia. The record temperatures in Irkutsk are 99 F and -57 F.

Title: One More Year

Sitting slumped in my lazy chair,
My hair damp from the sweat of the mid afternoon heat,
It seems like only months since I sat unmoving in my bed due to the unrelenting freeze,
negative 10,
no,
20 Fahrenheit,
why did I follow her here?
It brings me to tears,
the way my life ebbs and flows,
with good and bad,
never mind those
bad I mean
for it does not matter now the poor choices I’ve made,
because here in Irkutsk there are no other left
choices I mean
instead I must continue to work for the debt accumulated over the years,
seven years past,
one to go,
my life no longer breeds interest,
instead cheap vodka and sweet bread give me company
day in and day out,
above and below zero.

I look out upon the street,
few have managed to challenge the heat,
but those who have are filled with that Russian spirit,
to challenge the day ahead,
forging futures that are none,
so they will continue day in and day out,
like myself,
working for life,
above and below zero.

“Why must you sit around in the sun?” asks the man approaching from the east
in broken tongues I answer, “why else would I sit in the sun? To perish of course”
“but by perishing you leave the work placed upon you behind!”
squinting I stare at him,
he has lost his reason, for work isn’t all to live for
that reason of his must have wandered off one cold night,
to the Siberian forest of the north
seeking adventure, love or both,
as this corpse besides me works,
above and below zero.

But I have a year left,
amongst the full and bare trees,
abandoned houses and churches.
When that day comes I leave in a hurry,
forgetting the blocs of communist housing,
strong scented bread,
beautiful views,
lovely winters,
the pride of generations,
and of course those days which were above and below zero.