For Alexei

It has finally happened
What was expected
From the Little Bald Man
In his rampant paranoia
Your strength in opposition
To the fiendish devil
Who hides in his palaces
Behind armies of guards

What a coward he is
In an iron grip on power
Knowing his fate
If his people surround him
Like Mussolini
Hanging from a lamp post
A human piñata
He will become

You have surrendered your life
In an act of unbelievable bravery
As you confronted the evil
Face to face

Poisoned and punished
Beaten, imprisoned,
You held out to the last
Until he wiped out your life

But now, will the people remember
Your acts of resistance
Your deeds out of love
For the people of home?

Or will the Little Bald Man
Fool them all once again
With words full of lies
Packed with outrageous deceit
Backed up by threats of death
And fear of remote gulags
And loss of all they have
In their own imprisoned minds?

--

I wrote this after Navalny was killed by the Russians. May his soul rest in peace, unlike that of the Little Bald Man.