Paul Hostovsky

OSIP

Osip Mandelstam wrote a poem
making fun of Stalin. It got Osip
in a lot of trouble. He recited it
at a salon where it got some laughs
and then someone informed on him
and he ended up dying in a Gulag
in the Soviet Far East. I wrote a poem
making fun of Donald Trump and it got
no attention because this is America
where nobody listens to poets or reads
their poems. And maybe Osip would say
I should be grateful I live in a country
where nobody listens to poets or reads
their poems, a country where you are free
to say what you want to say, no matter
if it’s false or hateful or hurtful or divisive
or throwing gasoline on the fire that
OK maybe you didn’t exactly start
or exactly yell in a crowded theater,
but you’re fanning the flames and it’s
not only legal but politically expedient,
and all the snow in Siberia won’t put it out.


Paul's YouTube video reading of "Osip"


Paul confesses: "I published a poem making fun of Trump called 'Trump Inaugural Poem' (because he didn’t have an inaugural poem). It got no reaction. I couldn’t help thinking of Mandelstam–who got a reaction–and of the crimes of Stalin, and of the crimes of Trump. Then I wrote this one."

PAUL HOSTOVSKY's poems have won Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Best American Poetry, and The Writer's Almanac. Website: paulhostovsky.com