Poetry Exercise #4: Metaphor Poem REWRITE

Pectopah in Saint Petersburg

The Russians like to trick
unsuspecting tourists;
it’s mostly the Americans
who confuse the alphabet.

The letter ‘д’ a hat,
Lincoln’s lofty stovepipe.
‘И,’ to the glancing eye,
surely a backwards ‘N.’

‘Ё’ with two dots above,
Uncle Sam watching you.
‘Ч’ – is that a number?
And ‘Я,’ echoing ‘R.’

‘C,’ a ruse – the sound not
an English ‘c’ at all.
‘П’ is a skyscraper
and ‘Ц’ could be a state.

When tourists stop, asking the way,
most on the street are tourists too.
But the Russians shake their heads
in mock confusion and walk away.

The Russians all speak English,
but only to each other.