Conjunction And
We met on a Sunday, no not exactly,
we met before, but it wasn’t that either:
you drank coffee through a straw but it was more like
a poor bird stopping in to see a horse in a coat
and you took me by the took me by the took me by the hand
and a tree with red berries and mountains and mountains
and we laughed and listened and Lord everything was bullshit
and the tree with its red berries and its bark and its bark
and we had each other like beasts without pausing
and if everything after the fact is sad we are not things
and we came from garbage and we played with garbage
and you caressed my skin with the seeds of pearls. Now it’s January
already and over us, pardon me, pink magnolias with their dog tongues
on the grey background of old snow have bloomed, and every time I pass
among these miracles I remember the smell of your hand
torn from me, and torn from you.
— Polina Barskova, translated by Ilya Kaminsky with Matthew Zapruder
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Yay, I bought that book at AWP too, though I haven't had a chance to crack it open yet. This makes me very glad I bought it.
ReplyDelete(And of course glad I got to meet you in person, too.)
It's a good book, though a little short. I wonder when Ilya Kaminsky is coming out with a new one of his own? I really loved his first book. And yes, glad to meet you!
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