Polish People's Republic

good morning
model my monument
Milosz, a prize
resolve
authorities in front
workers pretend
culture
is with us
engraved
but not the whole thing

spring standoff
officials funny
free Saturday
an army general
Marshall law
nobody paid attention
October
stagnation
the last bus in
ten thousand soldiers
downtown
December
shut off the phones
bugged
his future wife
say something interesting
Easter greetings
not censored
reconsider the army
resistor
march

uniforms, Chopin
things are not good
whatsoever
borders shut curfew
walk the dog during
the evening news
police state on a budget
demonstrate
on holidays
violence on toes
we thought it would
last forever
finally lifted
July
trying to incorporate
game changed
they live brief lives

elections destroyed
you probably voted
daughter
high up, counted
that's her job
political prisoners
found solidarity
strikes
reluctantly
August
the man who put him
in prison negotiated
a round table
legalized underground
elections
a Polish paradox
rigged free elections
fell
execution on
Christmas eve

a house, a senate
nobody showed up
hold your noses
pull back
a Catholic
minister
Tadeusz Mazoweicki
those weren't us
an entity

coat of arms
crown eagle
no crowns in communism
go paint on crowns
badly painted
hatless eagles
let's go back

"there's not supposed to
be anything absurd
in communism"