Bolshoy Stone Bridge

by Anna Golubkova
translated by Anna Halberstadt

As I was passing through the Bolshoi Stone bridge
to my surprise, I felt  so alive.
There was only the sky around me,
plenty of sky, much more, than a regular average
person would need.
I walked through the Bolshoi Stone bridge
and thought of how long ago it had been
that I felt  just like a person
without any particle of gender
age or social class mixed in.
And above my head there were floating
enormous blue-grey clouds . . .

* * *

In subway —
a girl with bulging eyes
thickly lined
with a black eyeliner.
Most likely, she fancies
looking like a slow deep-water fish
barely moving its fins
deep under the water,
where the Sun does not reach . . .