Envoi

“You will die on a boat from Yalta to Odessa” ~ a fortune teller, 1992

What ties me to this earth? In Massachusetts,
the birds force themselves into my lines–
the sea repeats itself, repeats, repeats,

I bless the boat from Yalta to Odessa
and bless each passenger, his bones, his genitals,
bless the sky inside his body,
the sky my medicine, the sky my country.

I bless the continent of gulls, the argument of their order.
The wind, my master
insist on the joy of poplars, swallows, —

bless one woman’s brows, her lips
and their salt, bless the roundness
of her shoulder. Her face, a lantern
by which I live my life.

You can see us, Lord, she is the woman dancing with her eyes closed
and I am the man arguing with this woman
among the nightstands and tables and chairs.

Lord, give us what you have already given.

~ Ilya Kaminsky