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Sport 31: Spring 2003
Bella Akhmadulina's umbrella
Bella Akhmadulina's umbrella
I let you go like an umbrella,
pulling into the wind.
I won't look to see where you are going—
anyway, all I can see
is the rain.
It hasn't been at all hard to live
in someone else's house.
There's a cicada I listen to
sto
ste
sto
ste—
an insistent singing
the whole family
has had to get used to.
If I can't sleep, I look out the window.
There is always some sleepless star to reply.
And my dreams, you want to know
where they live? Are you thinking
they are homeless?
They are right there where I left them,
where the tallest young man in the world
used to stand between
the rain and me.
I let them go like an umbrella,
north to north.