- translated by Richard Coombes
- russian text: https://kopilkapoetry.org/?p=740
They tell you: get your information from elsewhere.
Lot of dodgy telegram channels out there.
I went into the yard to take out the trash
So the house wouldn’t stink to high heaven.
In the yard was a black bus. No plates; I thought, there must be a reason.
And like geese all a-flap, out flopped six swashbuckling cops.
Broke into a sprightly run, circled me with a series of hops,
Looked like a sports meet, that kind of shit.
Seemed they were dumb; without a word being enlisted
they proceeded to transmit
lessons on homeland and love, baton-assisted.
From my phone they dug up an order for an extremist bouquet,
Nazi texts from the wife and protest pics of our girl, three months old to the day.
Down at the station, not exceeding the permitted limits, they dunked my head in the toilet,
stitched up a criminal suit in minutes, blackened an eye with a certain enjoyment.
Turns out that for a while in my own yard I’ve been on picket duty,
publicising, in a purposeful manner, my rubbish in August and January.
To which there are witnesses in balaclavas and testimony from the head of the management committee.
The caretaker Klava was unable to perform: the booze was making her giddy.
My lawyer lost his license the moment he started speaking.
Thanked the police for taking it and asked them to go easy with the beating.
They gifted me two years probation. I laughed and cried.
Information? Time to crowbar open a solid cliff wall, see what’s inside.
Diana Balyko
Diana Balyko (b. 1979) is a poet, playwright, and political activist from Belarus. She published five poetry collections, and her plays were staged worldwide. In 2021, Diana’s family fled from their Minsk home to Kyiv to escape political persecution; the year after, war forced them to leave Kyiv. In 2022, Diana was an Artist at Risk resident in Prague.
Comments are closed