11 March 2020

Untitled

A new poem by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin.

TOPSHOT – A priest kneels near “yellow vests” (gilets jaunes) on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on December 8, 2018 during a protest of “yellow vests” (gilets jaunes) against rising costs of living they blame on high taxes. – Paris was on high alert on December 8 with major security measures in place ahead of fresh “yellow vest” protests which authorities fear could turn violent for a second weekend in a row. (Photo by Eric FEFERBERG / AFP) (Photo credit should read ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP via Getty Images)

Sunday school.
The schoolyard leads to a riverbank.
A priest is fighting with the workers
who repair the road.

The blooming of irises,
a high sky over the riverbed.

The children look at illustrations.
The school textbooks
note what’s most important:

the dead leave their coffins
like it’s the subway’s last stop.
Jesus is on the cross
like a traffic cop at an intersection –
no one gets
what he really wants.

A New Orthography, a collection of poems by Serhiy Zhadan and translated from the Ukrainian by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin, is published by Lost Horse Press.