.With a Monkey©

The Turkish barrel organ’s very heavy!
Croat is skinny, crooked. Here he walks
by morning dachas. Skirted monkey’s weary,
With funny raised butt follows him, unforced.
So childish, and so elder people’s stories
In her sad eyes. The Croat’s dark and strayed
Like a Gypsy, burnt. The dust, the heat, the worries.
To Fountain from Odessa, faraway.

 

The dachas’ fences still in a living pattern
In acacia’s shade. Behind the roofs, the sun
Looks into leaves. In alleys, sea-spark lanterns,
The day’ll be longish, bright and hotly stunned.
All will be sleepy, the ceramic tiles
Will glow like glass. Then, suddenly, surprise:
A bicycle, like a silent flap of bird’s flight
and thundering by a German truck of ice.

 

Aw, quench your thirst so good! Here's a penny,
Here’s a kiosk, a big glass of ice-tea,
A Jewish girl with a languid smile pours plenty,
But th’walk’s long... The gardens, gardens, trees…
Exhausted pet, her elder’s gaze or child’s gaze
is sad. The Croat’s drunk with thirst.
But t’animal drinks, purple little palms brace
And greedily squeeze the foamy glass in frost

 

With rising brows, she’s sipping up her ice tea,
The Croat chews on stale dried white bread,
And slowly moves towards the shade of a plane tree...
You’re far away, Zagreb!
                                                         1907/2022 (EM)