***

“Stand up and look

how I walk without you now”

she says to me

“and cry and cry . . .”

I cry

and sob quietly:

“And what will I do now

without you?”

I ask hopelessly

“And you will bathe in tears”

she says, stressing the word “tears”

my cry borders on a laugh

“Cry in a way

that I’ll like”

my favorite, 3-year-old niece, Yaya

orders me

The entire family

is trying to hold back their laughter

I can’t hold it either—I burst out

and thus end up ruining

our traditional

staged farewell

Yaya is not satisfied

so I lift her up and

toss her to the sky

at first she screams

but then laughs

I seat her in the car

and drive her back home

On the way

I ponder how in every trait

in every little intonation

of this little girl

there flows an enchanting

and unsparing woman

good luck to the men in her life

I think with a smile

and then I recall her latest phrase

and I pause, overwhelmed:

what an amazing title

for a book—

Cry

In a way that I’ll like

Translated by Mark Andryczyk and Yaryna Yakubyak