Boris Pasternak made a crack
About Josef Stalin’s beard
That when Josef heard, he thought absurd
But allowed he might’ve concurred,
“Had Boris joined the chorus
And admitted he adored us,
I’d have shared my finest tobacco
And skipped the whole prison fiasco.”
But Boris was a stylist
With a very discerning eye,
He found the Great Man’s bristles
A bit too much to justify.
“It looks,” he told a candle,
“Like a hedge that’s lost its way,
Where a family of sparrows
Might decide to spend the day.”
The Generalissimo scowled
And he gave his snout a scrub,
He didn't like a mere poet
Acting like a grooming schlub.
“My whiskers are for tractor-drivers,
And the men who forge the steel!
Not for sensitive aesthetes
Who care how velvet jackets feel.”
So Boris kept his distance
And he wrote of Doctor Z,
While staying far away
From Joe’s facial topia-ry.
For though the beard was prickly
And the Party line was grim,
It’s safer to stick with verses
Than to give the Boss a trim.
Kalikiano's ACADEMIA.EDU website
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But I must give him credit for humor. It was a rather quaint and corny piece. But the real guys in history were all about very serious life and death matters. Shaving was a luxury that they did not partake in. Too busy throwing insults and in the case of Stalin, killing all of his adversaries.
Ron