Portrait of a homeless man in gray
2019
Oil on canvas
100х62
A crossword
1.
Imagine a face
Clenched in pain:
It’s the face of that beggar
that sits on the bench
solving a crossword.
He distributes into boxes
Words that interweave
by sharing vowels.
2.
It seems sometimes
that they are set like landmarks
at stations and at intersections -
Like mileposts or location markers
While scribing words like “ace”
this beggar understands
some greater things
about me.
3.
With just one «a»
Forever and ever.
__
Natalia Mandelshtam
Translation by Kira Usatenko
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