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sill
the bottle of water on the sill
of the wind
of the window
of the train

that was baikal
that body of water
in the window
in the frame
in the film

mojna potom

tyehploe, plow, potom shto

luch, nashe luchevaya
bolyezn, myedlena

the fish cost 10 rubles

straw basket, headband

listening to latin
was it really so long ago

dochka, malchik, pervi
sounds more like first
than the word first
sometimes

pervi kacca, dolga vremya

chanson singer on the sidewalk
prison, poverty, the people

according to the formula of the chanson
in Russia, post-socialist

Villons, there is no distinction
in Russian between house and home

malinke chelovek on the sidewalk
tolka chorni later and later now

kajde deen ni doma
na ulitza lubov nachala

a little like that, most
is not a superlative but bridge

so many are singing something
crossing it,

lodka, lavka,
burning garbage on the banks of the river
black bread, kvass,

her hair fell out from the radiation
at the age of six
called a kind of rain
a bald spot even now
shown only to stone

the face is called a turnip or something like that
when it's drunk, the face
and drinking is always a race
to forget where you are

myecta or place, once
we took bread and soup to the children
once (I couldn't do it more than once)
maybe it was their sense of humor
since it was the presence of a foreigner
that made them laugh

drinking soup without spoons
using the bread like a sponge
can I have another one, please?

Kto tam? Tolka ya, nikto. Oh?

You don't know what cynicism is.
Only I know that it sounds like laughter.
Like you laugh at the life you have,
nash gorod radnoi, etc. You wait for the worst
and are surprised when it does not happen
and when it happens, you are satisfied.

What could possibly be worse than this?

You
don't
know
what
it's like
in the villages.

This isn't a village, it's a town, count the statues.
The new statue last year in Chita of the Borderguard . . .
The new statue last year in Vladivostok of the Poet . . .

Getting off the train late February in the cold air
the transport of troops in the back of trucks like
the ages, overlapping, superimposed, and this
is the quiet cold air before