Bryan Myers
the French president went to talk to Putin
Putin verbally accosted a reporter after she asked her question
threatening nuclear war to a foreign journalist was news to me
and I stood in a kitchen
barefoot
and shirtless (some girls had sold me a pot brownie on the beach)
and it helped to laugh at the world sometimes
but then it was sometimes all you could do
when such a threat became nonchalant
and righteously bombastic
and shrewd
I knew not all Russians were bad and then
the sanctions came
and the Earth shook, shattering across Europe
where all along the Balkans expatriates bathed in hot tubs overlooking the countryside
as their homelands slowly sunk
into the sea
I think France will remain a stronghold
or maybe it will succumb to something like nationalist pride
with a brewing stew of hate and indiscretion of corruptible politicians
lax in their verbiage to blame
their political opponents for more and more power
I’ve never been to Paris, but I know that’s where the great artists went
to be born
and if I could pick one city where democracy dies, I guess
that would have to be
it.
Bryan traveled to 12 countries in 2019. He spent most of the pandemic in Vietnam, writing poems, stories, plays, his first full-length screenplay, and a pilot he optioned to an app startup for $500. He’s self-published 15 books. (bryanwilliammyers.com) (Twitter: @bryanwillmyers)