Dilip Chitre

17 September 1938 – 10 December 2009 / Gujarat / India

LENINGRAD, SANS MANDELSTAM, APRIL 1980

for the poet Viktor Sosnora
Nevsky Prospekt
The Czar Peter opened up a window on Europe
From where the bankrupt poets of the future saw
A mysterious navy well-armed with battle-ready poetics
Advancing on Russia.
I, a Marathi poet, walk on Nevsky Prospekt
Looking at the grand buildings on either side,
Realising that these monuments had no poet in mind.
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