Dmitry Blizniuk † Death Is a Simple Thing

Dmitry Blizniuk

Death Is a Simple Thing

Here, in the countryside, death is simple and unpretentious. It goes without makeup, and a chipped log rattles under a dented axe. This low, big-boned tree stump (be careful, watch your step) is a guillotine for chickens. Feathers and down are stuck in the notches in the wood, like last unlit cigarettes before execution, or unsent letters to beloved ones… And autumn birches pose nude around the house: armfuls of freckles are thrown up to the clouds and hang there, on the long, equine face of October.

— Translation by Sergey Gerasimov