In the Right-of-Way

by Irina Mashinski
     translated by B.Dralyuk and the author

However much the forest cuts the heart,
the forest is our home.
I’ve come back to the barren right-of-way
for us to stay

With wolves, I will be numb and you don’t howl.
be woods, be numb, learn how
to know like wolves, to drink like birds,
weave nests no more.