Boris Christov Sings Mussorgsky

Silver tones
And a somber basso:
Not a mountain grating
Techtonic revelations to tilting winds,
Just another stoic Russian peasant
With a thwarted dream,
Melodiously starving,
Crossing himself to the saints
In some dingy village chapel:
A big man with a big, broken heart
And a dream he can't quite name,
Knowing only that love, peace, and plenty
Are a part of it,
And that it lies
Somewhere
Far beyond the snowy pines,
And the frozen gloom of the Siberian plain.

George Chadderdon © 1996