Friday 7 April 2017

Тази маймуна е отишла до Небето/This monkey’s gone to Heaven


There’s a glow across the city brick this afternoon.
The balloons are up and couples discuss their future
on a crowded bar terrace. We let each other pass
on narrow pavements without a word of complaint.
You could almost believe that everything was normal,

that this was precisely what those eons of evolution
were for – the moment in the local corner store,
when, while men dithered by the cabinets, the owner
leant over the counter and waved to the woman
outside with a greyhound. ‘Come in,’ he said. ‘Come in.’

Image: Marina Shiderova; text: Tom Phillips