yes yes that’s just how I want to speak, as though into an elevator shaft
I want to speak like a woman who burns a pile of old paper in the street
and the flame dances but you can’t see her face
I want to speak like a woman without a face without a body
a woman like headlights illuminating the wall
flitting and disappearing and touching no one
but making everything in the room visible for a moment
I want to speak the way you’d speak into a keyhole or a crack in a brick wall
I want to float without falling like a plastic bag on the wind
that rises to the sixth floor and then to the ninth
this is how the air flows between the buildings
this is how we flow between the walls
unseen we wake up unseen we fall asleep
unheard we cry whisper speak
in bathrooms kitchens fire escapes
balconies dark stairwells
this is how I want to speak
like a flash of fire on the sea in the night
like a woman singing drunk in the street
as though no one can hear
but god
Copyright © Iryna Shuvalova. By arrangement with the author. Translation copyright © 2023 by Uilleam Blacker. All rights reserved.
