Borscht

We heard the news about Julia
on the train in Siberia.

From Siberia,
where dissent is real,
and gulags shadow the soul,
and the words of political poets spark revolutions,
Australia looks like a nation of bullies,
shallow, misogynist, small and petty.

So, we ate our borscht, seasoned with disappointment,
and chewed the bitter bread.