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BALLAD OF A SMALL MAN
by Robert Rozhdestvensky
On the Earth
ruthlessly small
there lived a man who was small.
He had a job that was small,
and he owned a very small bag.
He received a salary that was small…
And one day –
one beautiful morning –
a war knocked on his window,
a war that seemed
small…
He was given a gun that was small,
he was given boots that were small,
he was given a small helmet,
and a small—for his size—overcoat.
And when he fell,
in an ugly and wrong way,
with his mouth skewed by a battle cry,
on the whole Earth
there was not enough marble
to carve this guy
in life-size!
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