Firefly

Last night

wandered completely
through the terminal
In the morning
some October
a sort of sunlight
slides down the building

These spaces surrounded

by effigies of love
burn a little less
Across the balconies
familiar bodies
fade into each other

Outside the window

heartbreaks
tripped on the street
faces fly in the face of another
shadows lost
in the brown glass hulk
of Alfa-Bank
and another woman waits
for her song to be sung

Late for something

lost voices
turn the corner again
These places
by 9:45
will be touched
by nothing more
than low blue flames
and the noise of afterburners

Out by the airport

a car door slammed
Wings rise in the sky
like a photograph
Someone took a walk
in the woods today

Born from concrete
and the noise of aeroplanes
It is not unusual
to be aimless in nature
 
Do not remember
It will leave you breathless
leaning from the window-ledge

Today they held a parade

The long dark steps
and big salutes
will not be interrupted
in their cursed trajectory
 
A new holiday
a distant celebration
Like always
the patriots have got there first
 
to straighten up their arms
in a hopeless march
Deep in different streets
millions of bones are rolling
into dust
 
and someone
took a walk in the woods today

These spaces

these creations
dragged moments of speech
across Moscow Warsaw and Kiev

Do not remember

It will leave you breathless
leaning from the window-ledge
 
At night there are fireflies
 
I am not the one
who draws you here




from Lost Republics (Salmon Poetry, 2008)