{"id":5196,"date":"2014-12-28T16:28:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T16:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/?p=5196"},"modified":"2014-12-28T16:28:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T16:28:44","slug":"walking-next-to-vladimir-putin-lucian-mattison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2014\/12\/28\/walking-next-to-vladimir-putin-lucian-mattison\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Next To Vladimir Putin || Lucian Mattison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Walking Next to Vladimir Putin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The US says Kosovo is a unique case. But why is it so special?<\/p>\n<p>This is not just double standards. It is primitive and straightforward<\/p>\n<p>cynicism. You cannot change everything to suit your own interests.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Vladimir Putin, March 18, 2014<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nHe holds a champagne bottle<\/p>\n<p>torch, diesel-soused kerchief<\/p>\n<p>spilling out of the open mouth,<\/p>\n<p>a dead goat\u2019s tongue<\/p>\n<p>aflame. Walk with me, he says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We dream these streets<\/p>\n<p>into being\u2014Sevastopol,<\/p>\n<p>Black Sea beacon, origin<\/p>\n<p>in a ring of lesser ports. Carve<\/p>\n<p>secants into the earth, reimagine<\/p>\n<p>maps, permuting borders.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Didn\u2019t he say it\u2019s primitive\u2014<\/p>\n<p>seeing oneself as exceptional<\/p>\n<p>when all are created equal<\/p>\n<p>under God\u2019s burning eye?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I watch twin suns rising like petrol<\/p>\n<p>bombs on opposite horizons,<\/p>\n<p>East and West, two eyes<\/p>\n<p>enormous, traipsing sky<\/p>\n<p>through Cold War smoke,<\/p>\n<p>tear gas billows\u2014their reflective<\/p>\n<p>symmetry negating one another\u2014<\/p>\n<p>our virtues a city dragged<\/p>\n<p>through other people\u2019s rubble.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Two countries hold flames inches<\/p>\n<p>from wicks, anticipate high noon,<\/p>\n<p>so they can watch the fireworks<\/p>\n<p>burst as citizens below take ash<\/p>\n<p>on their tongues like snow.<\/p>\n<p>_____________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lucian Mattison<\/strong> is the author of &#8220;Peregrine Nation&#8221; (The Broadkill River Press, 2014) which won the 2014 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in Bodega, The Boiler, Everyday Genius, and Hobart, among others. He edits poetry for Green Briar Review and Barely South Review. Read more at Lucianmattison.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walking Next to Vladimir Putin &nbsp; &#8220;The US says Kosovo is a unique case. But why is it so special? This is not just double standards. It is primitive and straightforward cynicism. You cannot change everything to suit your own interests.&#8221; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Vladimir Putin, March 18, 2014 &nbsp; &nbsp; He holds a champagne bottle torch, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}