(Click here to follow Pavel's ongoing epic poem “The Shoulder of the Sun.” You may visit Pavel's website at http://www.greyowlpress.com.)
by Pavel Chichikov
Dives ate and Lazarus starved
But Dives scraped his platter clean
The dogs that licked the beggar's wounds
Belonged to Dives and grew lean
The beggar's heart was small and red
The blood they lapped was thin and sweet –
When Dives' dogs ate Lazarus
It cost much less than butcher's meat
But when they broke the beggar's bones
And licked the marrow from the cracks
The rich man cried and rubbed his hands:
I wish I had poor Lazarus back
For then I'd send my table scraps
To make atonement for my lapse