The Wrath of Putin

It's hard to imagine any American president looking forward to meeting Vladimir Putin.  Some of the pictures posted earlier this week of Obama and his Russian counterpart were painful with Obama looking stiff and uncomfortable and Putin looking mean.  The first line of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" (Hello darkness my old friend) came to mind as I imagined what Obama must have been thinking.

Hello Putin my old friend

I’ve come to talk with you again

I know that you’re a really scary guy

That’s why I look like I just ate a fly

But we’ve got to talk ‘bout the problems everywhere

If I dare

Take on the wrath of Putin.

Meeting you is not my choice

Somehow I tend to lose my voice

You remind me of an old nightmare

Where I find myself exposed and bare

And my eyes are stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the wrath of Putin.

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

Russians protesting their president

Russians resisting their government

Russians holding signs we never used to see

That show they dared

Take on the wrath of Putin.

“Fools,” said I, “You do not know

This guy’s a wicked, wicked foe

Make sure he doesn’t notice you

Make sure he doesn’t poison you”

But my words, like silent raindrops fell

And echoed

In the wrath of Putin.

And the people stood their ground

For in protest they were bound

To force the end of an oppressive reign

Where the ruler’s had too much to gain

And the crowd said, “We’ve had enough of this thug and his fellow thieves

So we won’t shrink

From all that wrath of Putin."