Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

Faruk Šehić

seeded at the edge of the cliff. The beams broke branches as they fell with a loud rumble to land behind the row of sheet-metal garages near the substation and the public toilet chokedwith vegetation. Mirdal told me to go and catch one of those beams in flight. I ran towards one that was falling in slowmotion and then felt Mirdal’s hands grab me before I could carry out the suicidal mission. He stuck me into the shopping bag as punishment, and my head looked out of it and swayed in time with Mirdal’s steps as we made for Ustikolina. From there one can see the river islands, the football stadiums and the confluence at Ajak, where I later once secretly bathed in the early spring: I dared to swim out into the

God disposes,’ she would tell us. Imagine me now very small – so small that Mirdal Terzić can carry me in the straw shopping bag that smells of fresh bread and milk to my Grandmother’s house in the suburb of Pazardžik. The first stop on our way was in Žitarnica, where we played badminton. Or rather, Mirdal played badminton with his friends, who were the same age as him, and I chased after a fat bumblebee, trying to swipe it with my racket- rocket and launch it into space. Workmen were demolishing an old house on the hill overlooking Žitarnica and throwing roof beams down through the trees that had

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