Debrecen Street Blues
Epigraph: “They’re all already dead” – Cesar Vallejo
– Vytautas Stankus
I
and what about alcoholic pranas from the second floor
who spent his last days drinking pure spirits
from a jar throwing up blood turning yellow
he was a good person just really angry
and what about that other guy pushing sixty
he lived alone neither alcoholic nor anything
calm quiet tidy when he didn’t show up for work
two days in a row his colleagues got quite
curious about where he went to because everyone
used to see him and then they didn’t
and what about the ones i saw many times and
continue to see many times and will see many times
they’ll go and go away and then
i won’t see them anymore
and what about the ones i only saw once
and never saw again they went their way and
had no way back and who knows what
happened to them probably nothing the aeroplanes
are landing outside the window even now but
the crows don’t care anymore
and what about those crows who perch in the trees staring
and cawing and strutting about fighting for something
or not fighting for something sometimes flying even when
water is falling from the sky the water is falling
from the sky do you see o gods
and what about the gods the gods like everyone else
who the hell knows
but i’m saying to you
look:
water is
falling
from the sky
II
mush is now falling from the sky
mush like sorbet it’s so wet and cold
a slippery swill
now mush is falling from the sky
and they’re talking about it on tv
the roads are getting all slippery
drivers are told to take care
now mush is falling from the sky
but people are not watching television
they’re looking at some other screen
and they see how mush is falling
from the sky
mush is falling from the sky
it descends it splatters on heads
it splatters on roofs and branches and
the trees slowly lower their hands
III
ice is now falling from the sky
and everything freezes
crackles
and stops
there was also saulius from i don’t know what floor
he had a krishna braid and a gigantic rottweiler
he would drink beer by the stairwell door talking
to good old irena (two sons – one in the slammer,
one in the madhouse) his rottweiler was the first to die
and then there was osvaldas the security guard
who asked me up to his soviet block apartment with a cracked
window to help set up his dvd player sent by his daughter
but the instructions are in english and he really wanted
to watch the electric light orchestra live
and his light’s not electric anymore and he’s not live
and then there was birutė the warmest person imaginable
she was a lush because even warm people need to warm up sometimes
her wake was in june in the aeternitas funeral home
it was inhumanly hot and the army was having a festival
children were running around and soldiers were standing
and the chicken dance was playing and her son sat crumpled
on a bench outside smoking a cigarette
while back inside there hung above her coffin
a dimly glowing exit sign
and then there was ruslan who carried a rat on his shoulder
and had a house full of critters and he shat and peed in the corner
together with them and almost cut up his mom he was
drunk as a skunk and set fire to his bed he’s a quick energetic
guy and smashed he shits and pees in the corner on rat bones
clutching the cheapest vodka bottle he can find he howls
and its clear glass reflects
how just outside the window
ice is falling from the sky
IV
now the ice of the sky is lying on the ground
slowly growing soggy
and how about aurelia the activist
who was shining like a diamond as she left
the ninth housing project with her family
to find happiness and then
a few years later we met her all alone
spent and crumpled
entering the seventh project stairwell door
and how about dark-haired chorick
who would stand by the stairwell door
eating sunflower seeds
before he tried to rob us
and when my father chased him away with a knife
he calmed down a bit
and stood by the stairwell door
eating sunflower seeds
never meeting our eyes
and how about sigita and matas
sigita took to drink matas took to beating her
while i was running around the yard with their son
now matas is with diana and sigita is alone
though she kept his last name
and how about marius and his sister kristina
she was the first girl who caught my eye
he was the saddest kid in the hood
but in their teens they both began to smile
and were never sad again
and how about them all
like broken things from under the bed
they walk and lie down all over this earth
but you can’t help them one bit
and now the ice of the sky lies on the earth
it slowly melts away hissing and wheezing
as it seeps into the ground
while water begins
to fall
from the sky
Functional Blues
the provisions are providing
and the layer hens are laying
the pesticide is pestilent
and the stoker is quite stoked
the props are properly propped
and the rakes have all been raked
the memento stays memorial
and the receiver receptorial
the birds have all been birded
and the statues still stand static
the fastener makes things fast
and threads find threads to last
the mind becomes more mindful
and sight remains insightful
night draws nigh as day recedes
and what is heavy has been heaved
the continuous is not tenuous
and the conclusion is well closed
loose change has been exchanged
and that’s enough it seems for us
