Like the secret in a riddle of door inside a key

An enigma in the sparkle of a teardrop’s mystery

Like the spinning ballerina in a silent music box

Of a tsar inside a star, in the gaze of the sly fox

Like the firebird’s deep wisdom, in a shallow dragon cell 

Or the promise of forever in a wilted scarlet spell

Like the shattered broken whole is the spacious Russian soul

Like a symphony’s poema in whisper of a scream

Or the weeping in the laughter of a dying Cossack’s gleam 

Like the coldest summer’s rivers and the warmest winter’s bath

Like the mercy in a sentence after God’s horrific wrath

The pliés inside a battle of a lovesick poet’s duel

And the letters, oh the letters, of the lover and the fool

Like the embers of hot coal is the frozen Russian soul

Like the crime within redemption of a sunset come too soon

Or the light within the darkness of the birch woods and the moon

In the magic of a gold egg in a doll inside a bear

In a fairytale of rhyming words with song, while earth with air

In the question of an answer and the friend within the foe

Lies the meaning of this cypher, lies the yes within the no

Like an ancient coded scroll is the open Russian soul 

Viktoriya Neverov-Krstic 2020