Russia and ME

Russia has granted freedom to thousands and thousands.
It was really a terrific thing to do,
people will never forget it.
But what I did was take off my shirt
and all those shiny skyscrapers the strands of my hair,
every pore
in the city of my body,
broke out their banners and flags.
All the citizens, all the men and women
of the government of ME,
rushed to the windows of my thousand-windowed hair,
all those Igors and Olgas
and nobody told them to do it,
they were ecstatic at the sunshine
and peeked through my skin.
The Bastille of my shirt has fallen!
And all I did was take it off.
I have granted sunshine to the people of ME!
I stood on the beach with no clothes on,
that's how I gave freedom to my people
and suntans to the masses.

This poem, 'Russia and ME', is by the Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov. The photograph, 'To the construction of the capital', was taken by the Russian photographer Arkadi Shaikhet (1927).