Fruits Of Our Labors

In 1947, Mihail Timofeevič Kalašnikov designed the AK-47,
Which, by 1949, was the official Soviet military rifle.
How many balalaikas serenaded his glory, honoring him?
Kalašnikov is on FaceBook - have you seen him?
He's 91 now, so he doesn't really post...

In 1955, the Kremlin ordered Konstantin Lyasnikov to fly his TU-16
toward mushroom clouds in the wake of A-bombs he'd dropped.
He said, "The plane shook so hard the controls kept slipping out of my hands.
The heat was so intense I could hardly breathe," lamenting he wouldn't
Have wished that ordeal on his worst enemy. It didn't happen once.
He ran 178 tests, until 1962, when nuclear testing went underground.

Lyasnikov couldn't tell his wife until 1992 when the SU was no more.
Many comrades, fellow pilots and airmen, were disfigured, several died,
some after years of suffering. At the scene, "The earth was scorched.
I saw sheep and horses without skin and eyes, shredded trees," the pilot
Recounted. Radiation poisoning must be for the loyal.

What wanton disregard for humanity makes a chess game of human lives,
Pitting Soviet power against Western authority? I have my suspicions
Men comfortably enshrouded in heavily tinted, armored Rolls Royces
Don't understand diplomacy. The Ukraine has a parliamentary government
The U.S. Department of State watches with interest.
You know there's oil between the coast and them there hills.

Vines grow in the southern Crimean Peninsula, so thick and verdant
That the highlands barely reflect, from the zenith of Tchatir Dagh
To the lush valley of Soudagh, what travesty and injustice
Razed it barren during a time call the Cold War.
Hops and clematis drape luxuriantly over branches bearing
The most delicious fruits the world has ever tasted.

~Ann R Cantu, 12/20/2010