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 jug
Turned 30 in the basement
Of the house where he grew up
He lived inside a movie
That played inside his mind
A sullen unsung 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
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
He lay there in the the water.
The sadness left his soul
Out across the ocean
Drifting toward his home