In Transit
Kaunas, Lithuania, 1993The trolley bus won’t go.Its reins have fallenfrom society’s hands.When the driver lifts them upa bolt of light breaks freeand we sink into silence again.I have to go —the flowers are wiltingand I have to go —this can’t be my love,our rusted hope, stalledon an outer roadstuck in a traffic ringwhile cars budge past,elbowing us —like the scowling crone in a cowlpushing through an oblivious crowd,a sewing pin stuck between fingers —needling the corpseof our post-Soviet, post-modern transport.This must be whyin Chagall’s paintingsthe lovers always fly.
Feature Date
- February 9, 2022
Series
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
Copyright © 2021 by Rimas Uzgiris.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Rimas Uzgiris is a poet, translator, and critic. His work has appeared in Barrow Street, Hudson Review, The Poetry Review (UK) and other journals. He is the author of North of Paradise, published by Kelsay Books (2019). Tarp, a collection of his poetry in Lithuanian translation was published in 2019. He is translator of five poetry collections from Lithuanian, including Then What (Bloodaxe) and Vagabond Sun (Shearsman). He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers-Newark University. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant and a NEA Translation Fellowship, he teaches translation at Vilnius University.
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
