Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

Natalka Bilotserkivets

THE HERBARIUM

There is nothing sweeter than the scent of a child’s hair... just a dried violet smells this way... just a certain blue-eyed petal on the thin stem of a neck ...and like two shoulders two delicately glued leaves... Best is that it’s all almost unnoticeable— because it’s timid... here, for example, the scent... or childhood... or even death, though its final exhale is oversweetened anyway, demanding... ...Yesterday God read and painted, today He played a bit of basketball and a clarinet. Hundreds of routine things have become mildly distasteful to him. Most often

he thinks about barefoot journeys, and a fresh wind drills like a knife, a flute tunnel in the cosmic firmament.

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