Reykjavik, where Reagan

and Gorbachev almost agreed

to ban all nuclear weapons.

Gorbachev, an old man now,

maintains that this dream 

is humanity’s only hope.

 

The shelling of civilians

is indiscriminate. The situation

has gone far beyond insults,

invective, rhetoric.

Forty years on

I’ll concede that avuncular

 

rightwinger Ronnie Reagan,

bete noire of all 80s lefties,

was correct. Despite

glasnost and perestroika,

this empire really is evil,

paranoiac, toxic.