Les Adieux
Russia is blessed, for a group of Russians/ witnesses the end./ One from the gas company,/ formerly of the Ministry;/ sufficiently senior/ never to have acquired/ the demeaning capitalist art/ of charm.

Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure and Happiness, both published by Story Line Press. Other of his poems and essays have appeared in Hudson Review, Southern Review, Fulcrum, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Die Gazette (Munich), Representations, and elsewhere. Poems have most recently appeared in the print journals Magma (UK), The Hat, Bateau, and Chiron Review. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Snorkel, Hamilton Stone Review, Diagram, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Denver Syntax, Barnwood, Wheelhouse, Mudlark, Shadow Train, and elsewhere. Pollack is an adjunct professor of creative writing at George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Russia is blessed, for a group of Russians/ witnesses the end./ One from the gas company,/ formerly of the Ministry;/ sufficiently senior/ never to have acquired/ the demeaning capitalist art/ of charm.
I dreamt constantly/ (though they said you can’t dream, frozen)/ of a girl I’d never seen.
For a change, it isn’t his usual/ ice-caps melting, species dying,/ the fast-approaching deserts/ and savagery.