Saturday, October 8
WHAT IS THE USE
My days are few
My books are many
What is
the use
Just this if any
When my days flee
birds will fly free
A longspur from Shakespeare
From Hugo a sparrow
A jackdaw from Chekhov
From Mandelstam
a mourning dove
A kite from Kleist
They’ll pull my soul by the threads of lines
weaving a net
to help me get
above the gaze the shouts the whistles
of heaven’s birder
Into the blue
where it rustles rustles
my dear
quiet
word (Julia Nemirovskaya, translated from Russian by Boris Dralyuk)