193 292
Poems
193
they’ve got trouble:
one night they forgot to turn off the gas
that warmed the shed
and all the hens suffocated,
hens, that’s alright, although it means
no eggs for Easter,
but it’s also Vaska, whom Vovka loved.
And now everyone’s crying:
Vovka for Vaska,
and old Marfusha for Vovka,
because he took to his bed and has lain there four days.”
And Grandma wiped her eyes with the corner of her headscarf
and went to fetch water.
And I stood in the hall
and, as the door wasn’t locked, went into the house.
Vovka lay on the bed with his face to the wall,
and when I came near,
turned over and asked,
“Will Vaska rise from the dead?”
And I answered:
“Don’t you doubt it”