fall ye gads a day without missiles

By Stansilav Belsky

Translated from the Ukrainian and Russian by Tatiana Retivov

***

a

“fall ye gads a day without missiles”

matrix platonism:

dismantling of the soul
down to the last blade of grass

b

the sound of the siren like a hot river
boils throughout the five–storied buildings
“air raid alert” — a spinning familiar}
broken record

i stay put on the bench with books and glasses

“whatcha doing?” — “writing poems”
better to answer directly

(kyiv again being bombed frantically
too early to return there)

c

a digital moon should have fallen
but the sun fell instead

inside the pneumatics it is warm
as under a blanket

(what will happen in the winter)

d

return me

the answer is undirectedly dark
as the snapping of fingernail against a stone

“maybe should give you a ball?”