the nice thing to do

by Igor Bulatovsky
translated by Polina Barskova and Ainsley Morse

* * *

the nice thing to do
the nice thing to do in a Soviet picture-book:
look out the window to the yard —
out there boys are playing soccer
All these Sashkas Kolkas and Mishkas,
out there their sentence is being read

Out there good old artist Konashevich
walks the preschool kids to Eden
Illustrating queens and princes,
She-tanks, he-planes, all the rest
Marching joyfully in ranks.

There beneath the Children’s Press clouds
A young man is growing up
All along the narrow cornice
The dusky pigeon makes his way
All these Chuks and Geks and Liams

This yard doesn’t have the space
For Russian letters Jewish letters
Voiceless letters, letters from Moskva
typecast letters dying behind bar, letters from Lethe