Summers Reading Tolstoy

Vitali Matrosenko Was a man who missed his time Born into the Union As it withered up and died He could have been a great man If history had aligned Instead of just some Russian kid In a suburb on Long Island Spent summers reading Tolstoy Drinking vodka from a mug Turned 30 in the basement Of the house where he grew up He lived inside a movie That played inside his mind He saw himself the hero Until that fateful night He was walking by the ocean He was listening to the wind He looked out at the boardwalk And set off for the end It felt like it was something Anyone might do Vitali he was lonely And he thought he'd like the view But it felt just like Another ugly day Darker and more quiet But more or less the same He never saw it coming The railing gave right in Vitali might have made it If he'd just learned how to swim As he lay there in the the water The sadness left his soul Out across the ocean Drifting toward his home