translated from Russian by Olga Mexina

Two executioners are playing chess

in the yard soaked in historical blood.

Their axes are set aside.

A toddler, whose legs have just been unbound,

is shakily chasing a butterfly with a burned wing;

she could never lift off the ground.

Behind the fence, there is a crowd

around the fighting roosters;

hats are cast into the sky.

A crescent moon flickers on the mosque’s dome;

it casts no shadow.

The awakened for the morning prayers stand in a row.

A dog with a chopped off ear and tail

is tied next to the sepulcher of the tardy caretaker.

The dog doesn’t bark; he howls.