Julia Nemirovskaya
translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk
Verse
Pretend it’s your bread and butter
pretend that it pays
Head to the ramshackle byre
wearing your only dress
Lead the moon-white bull
out to the fields
He will give you no milk
no golden fleece
The bull is all nostrils
all eyes
he longed to graze
on the grassy sod
and you fed him
you saved him
For one gaze
one nod