Vera Pavlova, 3 poems

9				

I broke your heart.
Now barefoot I tread	
on shards.


17

Why is the word yes so brief
It should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,
so that upon reflection you could stop
in the middle of saying it.


59

Writing down verses, I got	
a paper cut on my palm.
The cut extended my life line	
by nearly one-fourth.

~ from If There Is Something to Desire (Alfred A Knopf, 2010)
Translated from the Russian by Steven Seymour