Dunya Mikhail

Life is a handful of nails

in the hand of a shoemaker.

“The wider the vision, the smaller the sentence becomes.”

It solved by itself a math problem

that multiplied the one death by millions

to equal homeland.

teaches lovers to write letters,

I dream of a magic wand

that changes my kisses to stars.

At night you can gaze at them

and know they are innumerable.

I thank everyone I don’t love.

They don’t cause me heartache;

they don’t make me write long letters;

they don’t disturb my dreams.

I don’t wait for them anxiously;

I don’t read their horoscopes in magazines;

I don’t dial their numbers;

I don’t think of them.

I thank them a lot.

They don’t turn my life upside down.

He wants to travel directly to Rome

to dig a grave there like her smile.

He wants to sit by the window

to be sure that the sky

is the same

everywhere.

The Brown Mother: I raise my daughters for roses

and you raise your sons for ashes.

Yesterday I lost a country.

I was in a hurry,

and didn’t notice when it fell from me

like a broken branch from a forgetful tree.