Venya Gushchin
aubade in hexameters mostly
soon there will be further storms my cincinnatus
first, the morning will knock rudely [it should let us
be , belong to you and you and you and you
until all pronouns are once more abolished, drums
reaching to and for that hug before all hugs
roles randomly assigned
without within
] and soon
the snare outside will gather, whispering underneath
your chin you’ll loom your dome-eyes [lids and lashes] breathe
the static whirr of cymbals
and sublime
and all the lack
[the window trembles] we will take
turns being small
and curling to each other, trading roles
and species: feline human, neck and lap
July 14, 2022
Venya Gushchin is a poet, literary translator, and PhD Candidate at Columbia University, writing a dissertation on the late styles of Russian modernist poets. His translations of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Elizaveta Mnatasakanova have received the Columbia University Slavic Department Pushkin Prize. Blockade Swallow, selected poems by Olga Berggolts translated by Gushchin, appeared from Smokestack Books in 2022. Most recently, his translation of Yevsey Tseytlin’s Rereading Silence was published by Bagriy & Company. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus; Action, Spectacle; Midway Journal, and elsewhere.