Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

Faruk Šehić

ancestors and something taken for granted. People lived without history, and outside of history. The Cold War only brought temporary fuel shortages and occasional queues for fresh bread. Soon the days of restrictions were over and the future opened up, sumptuous and generous. Or is it quite conceivable that you were never like that? You’re now a phantom town. Your foundations rest in not- too-distant memory. You’re now a town of memory. You have none of the otherworldly vibrations that gave people faith in the joy of life. Now you are just home to plants and animals. A river passes through you that no longer bestows you the fruits of its waters. You’re now a phantom town: a waiting

bars, factories and throngs of peopleblithely celebrating the happy eighties, unaware of why they were merrymaking. People were as carefree as birds. If someone wanted to be poor, that was their own choice. Enjoying life came as naturally to you as the realization that tomorrow will be a new day. Your three houses of worship (with the Orthodox cross, the Catholic cross and the crescent moon with a star) stood so close to each other that you could sometimes see their shadows touch and intersect in the semi-darkness of a summer evening – a fantastic interpenetrationof theearthly and the otherworldly. No one took any notice of that back then because that harmony seemed a gift of forgotten

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