On love and struggle

Chekhov’s grave, encountered unexpectedly in a Moscow cemetery. The frost shines like the gleam of his damp pince-nez. - Anna Kamienska

The problem with Chekhov

if you must

was too much love.

He wrote his characters

with a love and kindness

uncharacteristic

of class struggle

and politics.

From the mortar of patronage,

from the serfs and bosses,

from the trade stench,

fie to live without religion, live without love

with revised slave morality

Chekhov was irrelevant.

There isn’t as much love.