APRICOTS OF THE DONBAS

THE BOOK OF ANGELS

Your teeth dark and holey

Like spoil tips

Your eyes gray and spicy

Like the upturned fibrils

Of the smoke of Alchevsk [1]

That grow upward

Take root everywhere

Like willows

—My health is lousy

But I don’t need pity

I pluck grass but not just any grass

Stone grass from under the earth

From under the sky:

Once, a sea was here

Here grew gigantic grass

On it, angels swayed

The grass listened to them speak

Committed the words to memory

And pressed itself into the turf

The turf squeezed out its water and

Became the essence of the universe

Got covered with fresh twigs

And some other woodblocks

These angelic words

Could not be transmitted by air

So they turned into shingle

Into stony grass

That is, turned into coal,

And now every coal pit

Is a book

Of angelic words

The pages of which

Burn in the forge

They are giant candles

Scattered

In swards

That is why the Donbas plants

Shoot colored fumes into the sky

Not giving a damn

About the smoking ban

In public places

Because on factory plazas

They are at home

Where

As everyone knows

Even cats

Smoke as much as their masters do

Choo choo

Goes the train

Choo choo

Notes

[1] The city of Alchevs′k is a major industrial center in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Translated by Svetlana Lavochkina with Michael M. Naydan