Our Father, who art in heaven
of the full moon
and the hollow sun
I wonder why the sun is hollow. Is it because it is hidden by clouds of smoke or something less specific? And what are we to take from the image of a full moon?
“Full moon, Kharkiv, Ukraine.” by Fiyoli is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
shield from death my parents
whose house stands in the line of fire
and who won’t abandon it
like a tomb
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV2&byte=4678801
There is the idea of “delivering us from evil,” but these entreaties to protect her family suggest how desperate she is feeling.
shield my husband
on the other side of war
as if on the other side of a river
pointing his gun at a breast
he used to kiss
I carry on me this bulletproof vest
and cannot take it off
it clings to me like a skin
I carry inside me his child
and cannot force it out
for he owns my body through it
I carry within me a Motherland
and cannot puke it out
for it circulates like blood
through my heart
Our daily bread give to the hungry
and let them stop devouring one another
our light give to the deceived
and let them gain clarity
and forgive us our destroyed cities
even though we do not forgive for them our enemies
and lead us not into temptation
to go down with this rotting world
but deliver us from an evil
to get rid of the burden of a Motherland —
heavy and hardly useful
shield from me
my husband, my parents
my child and my Motherland
translated by Oksana Maksymchuk, Max Rosochinsky and Svetlana Lavochkina
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