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Broken Sonnet (Sonnet) by Sasha
St. Petersburg
The sidewalk's arm whose elbow lies akimbo
along the curb spreads iron fingers out
to hold the low-barred bridge the tall ships limbo
under on the Nevá that wraps about
the city, belt-like, part of it as though
Petersburg'd been there ever since that river
first etched her granite banks, or as if her flow
had only grown with what the city'd give her.
Where Pushkin walked apartments are dank with crumbling
the beggars are mementos of the yellow and
red flag raised on the palace. Ambling
but broken denizens command
a tear. There's a graveyard's burn
where the old grandmothers mourn.
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