by Catfish McDaris

The dawn sunlight danced through
the prickly pear spines creating
shadows and rainbows on Ramona’s
sleeping face, she had suggested we

Use the cacti to protect us from night
creatures, I got up quietly and built a
mesquite fire, we had trout we’d caught
I rolled them in corn meal, salt, and chili

I could see Ramona’s nostrils dilated and
a smile was splitting her face, I asked her if
she had any dreams, she said no, I told her
about mine, while in the army we played

Poker in big tents, there were big snow
storms where I was stationed, the same
place as Elvis Presley, she took over the
cooking, knowing that sometimes my dreams

Were long winded, I told her we ran out of
beer, so we sent Fatty to buy a case or two,
he got his name from being a fat dude, we
waited and waited, finally we all went looking

For him, there he was lying in the road, with
beer cans everywhere, he was moaning and
groaning, there was a tire track across his fat
belly, we all gathered the beer, but Fatty died

“That was damn near you’re longest and most
boring dream story ever,” I put on some White
Stripes Seven Nation Army and Jolene, we had
fish, danced our asses off, and smoked a phatty.

by Volha Hapeyeva

amores perros
     translated from Belarusian by Annie Rutherford

they brought me chocolates
gave me dresses
on occasion even flowers
they dedicated poems to me
          when what I wanted was a dog
they told me I was beautiful
exceptional clever
and kind
I didn’t believe them and was simply angry
          for I wanted a dog
the people who brought chocolates
gave dresses and dedicated poems
married divorced
somebody died
          and I still wanted a dog
and like in that Astrid Lindgren book
they said
Smidge, what do you want a dog for, we’re better than a dog
in disbelief I closed my eyes
and remained seated on the window sill
          thinking about my dog
what breed is it
playful or melancholy
does it need brushed
what to feed it
what does it like to play
does it need to be trained
or will it understand me without words
just by looking into my eyes
and then one time
on my way back from the pool I heard someone running
after me
I’m sorry it took me so long to find you
we embraced and it dissolved
like the most healing of pills
flooding a crater
which gaped within me
my dog
my selflove

Poem
     translated from Belarusian by Annie Rutherford

five flowers
he told the florist
two open wide
one in part
two still just buds
a raised eyebrow
never has she had such an exact customer

five flowers do not fit into a wine bottle
the neck is too slim
and I am too small
against your background
my mountain
my lake

so I divide them up
three
then one and one
that weird custom of giving
an even number of flowers
to the dead

as if there weren’t enough differences between us
being dead and alive

as if there were hope
that I too might unfurl like those buds

which
never did

by Volha Hapeyeva

Poem
     translated from Belarusian by Annie Rutherford

the present tense is giving me difficulties
I am better at the past
and so I live there
if only it were like in those movies
me losing my memory
and the people who’ve moved into it
without my permission
I would calmly remove each recollection of them
like a hair off a coat shoulder
already unable to recall
whose it was