Eugenijus Ališanka

it is getting harder and harder to win I've got to relax
sit like li po with my legs bent under me
...

who would I be if I were really
not as I am now a man
of an unknown faith my head by itself
...

I was born hungry
graduated from the game of hopscotch
certified melancholic
...

the dead are walking about with small maps
in their hands
...

I matured slowly
bred from good berries not grapes
from the local gene pool
...

Dressed fish no milt no scales no head
in the stall in kalvarijos market dripping juices
the only one in the whole market
...

You had to understand your place is under water
among colorless grass
barely seen from a boat
...

I was following a cart
achilles tendons taut like cords
were playing the march of retreat
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My friends have aged
homer after a second glass
tells the same stories
...

On baltrameus' night I hid in a haystack
I wasn't of a different faith but had no say in the matter
the most monstrous can neither expect
...

We dug a long time
our spades sank deep into the sand
no sound sending a shiver
...

In my boredom I was pushing chessmen
as always at first offhandedly
that is to say just a game nothing serious
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Gray photography of ashes
from which a woman smiles vilnius century's end
a man as if alone plenty of room in corners
that turn yellow from the sun of vesuvius
...

I've tuned my vocal chords
now even a cough is in a major key
now everything I think about
...

As forecast the wind is rising
litter resurrects its promised land
across a span from the center of the empire
...

wearing army boots you clumped through the vineyards of god
somewhere on the adriatic in medana or priština maybe piran
since school days geography has been your blind spot
...

My ecological balance has been disturbed
the climate is warming days grow tepid
and nights cool but it's enough
...

The doors through which love leaves, the doors
to love are so small,
the doors to the overgrown orchard,
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Having traipsed about and lined his pockets
he returned home, carrying presents
in a new car
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In Memoriam of a Mouse
in a blue, not sky blue
bath (I rented it along with
...