Victory Day, May 2010, Moscow

Beneath the multi-colored onion domes
and beside a mammoth incarnation of Russia's new flag,
march myriad soldiers sharp as any from Rome,
by world diplomats who appear at home

The band plays music bright and clear
and in the sea of faces,
there's neither coldness nor fear

For the first time,
Russia has opened her doors
to soldiers from America, Britain and France,
nations once united in world war,
whose best peoples sacrificed so much
only to wonder what for

For victory and peace
soon gave way to greed and distrust,
and out came the beasts
of jingoistic war-lust.
And freedom fighters' bones
faded to dust,
as true hope and humanity
for cold decades did rust

But though so many were blind,
time has been kind.
The world has not burned
but rather has turned,
and blossomed into this age
of peace and great prosperity

So gather here Yankees
and Germans and Brits
on this square that deep in Moscow
peacefully sits

And the Russian soldiers
look young, hopeful, and bright:
though they chant in remembrance
of that old and terrible fight

Theirs is an ancient nation
finally taking her place in the sun,
in a world that for all its imperfection
has for now taken up civilization
and put aside the gun