PHANTOM PAIN
Ardakh Nurgaz
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.