Farewell with Gardens
Written by Dmytro Chystiak
Translated from the Ukrainian by Hilary Sheers
Narrated by Francis Poole
I see you for the last time
In a flash of evening windows
You cry but do not sing
You run out as your smile falls
When we embrace
Close our eyes
Silence echoes into silence
And palpitates on shoulders
And wheezes in the chest
Water lilies burst to bloom
Seed shines in seed
Rising tide after rising tide
Suddenly storms crash
Panes rattle and crack
Your cave opens
Stone falls from the eye
Snake darts from the palm
Into darkened vines
Home is a rock instead
Cherry-tree battered by storm
Cherry-tree of white fires
An unscorched wave
You will turn away from flame
A swallow on the shoulder
Salt appears on your face
Into the summer sea by windows
You will plunge, not drown
Remnants of a dead cherry-tree
Carried upwards in the eye.