{"id":988,"date":"2022-12-24T15:06:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T20:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/?p=988"},"modified":"2025-08-10T23:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T03:21:08","slug":"meet-vera-petrovna-she-is-a-cannibal-dmitry-kolomensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/24\/meet-vera-petrovna-she-is-a-cannibal-dmitry-kolomensky\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Meet Vera Petrovna! She is a Cannibal&#8217; &#8211; Dmitry Kolomensky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-994 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cannibal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"819\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cannibal.jpg 819w, https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cannibal-500x263.jpg 500w, https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cannibal-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theins.ru\/en\/society\/257950\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Meet Vera Petrovna! She is a Cannibal<\/b><\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>Meet Vera Petrovna! She is a cannibal.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>No, it\u2019s not like she boils folks for dinner. She isn\u2019t an animal.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>It\u2019s not like she prowls under the cloak of the night, hiding beneath,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Flashing her blade, rattling her cane, sucking her teeth \u2014<\/em><br \/>\n<em>No, nay, never! Vera Petrovna grows just like a plant.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Under westerly winds, she assumes an eastward slant.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Under easterly winds, she leans west, and, I\u2019ll have you know,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>At those times, Vera doesn\u2019t eat anyone. No.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But whenever a boss, any big or small boss, any boss of any kind,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Speechifying about peace and joy, makes his special sign,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Gives a certain signal, then Vera Petrovna makes sure the sign has been read.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Her shoulders grow wide and her eyes glow a special red.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Her religious feelings, class hatred and virginal honor grow so big, in a beat,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>That she begins searching for someone to eat.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Having detected an ugly look, an unpleasant nose, an unwholesome conversation,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A simple Vera Petrovna will write a denunciation.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A sophisticated Vera Petrovna will write an article or a manual,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Titled \u201cThe Comprehensive List of Recommendations<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 For the Identification and Disabling<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. Of the Politically Undesirable Elements,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. Which Interfere with Russia\u2019s Ability to Rise From Her Knees and Live in Bliss Perennial.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>But the truest Vera Petrovna knows the best places where they serve human flesh raw,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>So she goes to work for the prosecution, for the police, for the law,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Where the meat is fresh, the supply chain is great, and everything works without a hitch.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Plus, eating together is healthier than eating alone, which<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Has been proven time and again, no matter the age or the nation in which you eat.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>As to the gravy which makes human flesh taste especially sweet,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>It should be picked with respect to the era in which you eat it,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Based on the extant norms of how human flesh should be procured and treated.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But then, times change, and the boss gives a sign that active feeding is through.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>At once, Vera Petrovna\u2019s back goes slack and she switches her red eyes to blue,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Or brown; her feelings, her hatred, her honor cool down from hot to warm.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Once again, she assumes a regular person\u2019s form.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Then, Vera Petrovna and I have a neighborly chat at the bus stop,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Like, radishes were crappy this year, but potatoes gave us a nice crop,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Like, they said we won\u2019t get any snow in December \u2014 but then I see<\/em><br \/>\n<em>She is staring intently, strangely, right through my coat, at me,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>As though deciding which part of me would be roast and which would be stew.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cMeat\u2019s hard to come by, these days,\u201d she says. \u201cThe options are few.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Gotta kill for a decent cut.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I open my mouth. I can\u2019t speak at all.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I don\u2019t know what to say, I don\u2019t know where to flee; if I\u2019d known, I\u2019d have fled.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The motor is running, my heart is drumming, the bus goes forth at a crawl,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And Vera Petrovna\u2019s eye is glowing blood-red.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(Translated by A.K.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eastwestliteraryforum.com\/author_profile\/dmitry-kolomensky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Hom<\/b><b>e &gt; <\/b><b>Author Profiles<\/b><b> &gt; <\/b><b>Dmitry Kolomensky<\/b><\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-996 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Dmitry-Kolomensky.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"441\" height=\"420\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theins.ru\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>The Insider<\/b><\/a> &#8211; &#8216;<i>is a Russia-focused, independent media outlet. We&#8217;re fully committed to investigative journalism and to debunking fake news. We&#8217;re proud of our growing recognition, having received, among many others, The Council of Europe&#8217;s Innovation Award, The European Press Prize and the Free Media Award<\/i>&#8216;. That poem is from the <a href=\"https:\/\/theins.ru\/en\/society\/257950\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>\u201cMeet Vera Petrovna! She is a cannibal.\u201d 10 Russian anti-war poems<\/b><\/a> article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Vera Petrovna! She is a Cannibal:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,17,47,69,73],"tags":[72,48],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-musings","category-russias-invasion","category-totalitarianism","category-ukraine","tag-entertainment","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}