Stay With Us
For the victims of the January 24, 2011
Domodedovo International Airport bombing
Thirty five extinguished breaths
Thirty five senseless deaths
Thirty five names posted today
…in a world morally grey
To be buried in the search-engine ten-minute update
To be snatched away to their pointless fate
No! I object, I will not let…
…the machine of our world have them just yet.
Vladimir Babarykin, forty four, stay with us
Marina Babenko, forty three, stay with us
Ildus Yunusovich Gataulin, thirty six, stay with us
Igor Garkin, fifty five, stay with us
Irina Konstantinova Petrunin, nineteen, stay with us
Victor Pernyatin, sixty one, stay with us
Nikolai Yurashku, eighty seven, stay with us
…stay with us, stay with us, stay with us
Silenced voices, mute button on the remote
…playwrights who won’t ever write again
Stopped heartbeats, an empty hanger for a missing coat
…briefcases full of paperwork and pain
Lost moments, forgotten gifts to relatives forgotten
…in the shuffle of the injured feet
Last text messages, emoticons and that dreaded mute button
…before the blast melted the cell phones in the heat
Nikolai Pavlovich Kochergin, sixty eight, stay with us
Denis Noodles, thirty seven, stay with us
Natalia Volkova, thirty nine, stay with us
Oleg Tomin, thirty six, stay with us
Boris Smirnov, fifty two, stay with us
Boris Pustovalov, sixty one, stay with us
Kiril Aleksseevich Badrashov, thirty eight, stay with us
…stay with us, stay with us, stay with us
I will name them here, though I know them not
…they deserve to be mourned
I will sing them here, though I do not share their lot
….they deserve to be heard
I will pause in my hurried life, what’s a few breaths of mine?
… they deserve to be given a moment
I will kneel at their grave, and say a prayer, write a line
… they deserve the effort, the time is well spent
Kirill Baybuza, twenty three, stay with us
Shishkin Konstantin, fifty one, stay with us
Vadim Izmailov, forty six, stay with us
Natalia Isaev, twenty four, stay with us
Vic Eldarovich Lomzharidze, thirty eight, stay with us
Valery Belousov, forty eight, stay with us
Viktor Ivanovich Dubovitsky, thirty eight, stay with us
…stay with us, stay with us, stay with us
Thirty five dead bodies that once yearned
Thirty five names that once earned
Thirty five people that mattered just yesterday
…in our world morally grey
To be buried in a cold grave, with a wreath from the state
To be covered up by the soil, on some pointless date
No! I object, I will not permit…
… my personal world to treat this as just a news bit
Elijah E. Matveev, thirty four, stay with us
Andrei Vladimirovich Hripankov, forty three, stay with us
Renat Shafkatovich Sigmatulin, forty four, stay with us
Victor Trofimovich Shmatyuk, fifty three, stay with us
Alexey Zubritsky, thirty five, stay with us
Alexei Borisovich Dude, forty, stay with us
Jabar Muhamedzhanovich Sabir, forty seven, stay with us
…stay with us, stay with us, stay with us
You can drop them now, delete button or backspace will do
…from the payroll list and the retirement plan
You can take a red pen, or blue one if you prefer, some do
…and mark their files terminated, each and every one
Manila envelope, or a white one with self adhesive strip
…and an Avery label will do the trick
Magic marker, or bright yellow highlighter, paper clip
…to mark the personnel file, can you hear it squeak?
Murat Hudeynazarovich Khaknazar, twenty three, stay with us
Orinbay Rometovich Mombetov, forty five, stay with us
Nikolay Ivanovich Ivanov, forty one, stay with us
Maria Vallner Heidi, forty nine, stay with us
Hendrik Minderop, thrity four, stay with us
Anna Mashutin, twenty nine, stay with us
Gordon Campbell Kousland, thirty nine, stay with us
…stay with us, stay with us, stay with us
Thirty five men and women dead for no reason at all
Thirty five human beings like bricks in the Berlin wall
Thirty five reflections of you and me on another day
…in this world morally grey
To be buried with news newer still, of more of the world’s hate
To be covered up by time, as the hour of their passing passes late
No! I object, I will not allow…
… to let them depart the airport without at least a bow.
January 26, 2011
Konrad Tademar
List of the names of the Victims in Russian and their year of birth:
№ п/п Ф.И.О. Год рождения Гражданство Опознание
1 БАБАРЫКИН Владимир Аркадьевич
1966
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
2 БАБЕНКО Марина Александровна
1965
гражданин РФ Опознана юридически
3 ГАТАУЛИН Ильдус Юнусович
1974
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
4 ГАРКИН Игорь Алексеевич
1955
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
5 ПЕТРУНИНА Ирина Константиновна
1991
гражданин РФ Опознана юридически
6 ПЕРНЯТИН Виктор Михайлович
1949
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
7 ЮРАШКУ Николай Васильевич
1924
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
8 КОЧЕРГИН Николай Павлович
1942
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
9 ЛАПШОВ Денис Анатольевич
1973
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
10 ВОЛКОВА Наталья Олеговна
1971
гражданин РФ Опознана юридически
11 ТОМИН Олег Владимирович
1974
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
12 СМИРНОВ Борис Владимирович
1958
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
13 ПУСТОВАЛОВ Борис Владимирович
1949
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
14 БАДРАШОВ Кирил Алекссеевич
1972
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
15 БАЙБУЗА Кирилл Юрьевич
1987
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
16 ШИШКИН Константин Константинович
1959
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
17 ИЗМАЙЛОВ Вадим Геннадьевич
1964
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
18 ИСАЕВА Наталья Юрьевна
1986
гражданин РФ Опознана юридически
19 ЛОМЖАРИДЗЕ Вахтанг Элдарович
1972
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
20 БЕЛОУСОВ Валерий Иванович
1962
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
21 ДУБОВИЦКИЙ Виктор Иванович
1972
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
22 МАТВЕЕВ Илья Евгеньевич
1976
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
23 ХРИПАНКОВ Андрей Владимирович
1967
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
24 СИГМАТУЛИН Ренат Шафкатович
1966
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
25 ШМАТЮК Виктор Трофимович
1957
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
26 ЗУБРИЦКИЙ Алексей Александрович
1975
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
27 ЧУВАКОВ Алексей Борисович
1970
гражданин РФ Опознан юридически
28 ДЖАБАРОВ Сабир Мухамеджанович
1963
гражданин Республики Таджикистан Опознан юридически
29 ХАКНАЗАРОВ Мурат Худейназарович
1987
гражданин Республики Таджикистан Опознан юридически
30 МОМБЕТОВ Оринбай Рометович
1965
гражданин Республики Узбекистан Опознан юридически
31 ИВАНОВ Николай Иванович
1969
гражданин Австрийской Республики Опознан юридически
32 ХАЙДЕ Марие Валльнер
1961
гражданин Австрийской Республики Опознана юридически
33 МИНДЕРОП Хэндрик
1976
гражданин ФРГ Опознан юридически
34 МАШУТИНА Анна Григорьевна
1981
гражданин Украины Опознана юридически
35 КОУСЛАНД Гордон Кемпбелл
1971
гражданин Великобритании Опознан предварительно
Note:
I asked a good Russian friend of mine to submit this poem to a number of Russian publications in the City of Los Angeles. Needless to say I expected no money for the action. They all declined, ostensibly on the grounds that the poem is in English and they only publish in Russian. Oh well.
