The World at Night

By Dmitry Blizniuk

at night, the world 
takes a break from people;
it rests like animals
in the cages of Colosseum,
and the sand above recalls the sea,
and something personal it can still remember,
something romantic,
some innermost things,
but not the taste of urine, feces, blood, or sweat;
night is the clear conscience of the beast.
the transient mutual understanding
of the two feuding worlds –
Siamese warriors are sleeping,
embracing the enemy like lovers…
on a moon-lit night,
a starry unicorn
comes into our garden
to regale itself on windfall apples,
and I watch, enchanted,
as it picks up carefully a crushed fruit,
trying not to gouge the wet ground with its horn,
which glitters like broken glass and salt. 
and drying leaves
under its hoofs hiss
like dispersible aspirin.

Dmitry Blizniuk is a poet from Ukraine. His most recent poems have appeared in Rattle, The London Magazine,, Pleiades, Another Chicago Magazine, Eurolitkrant, Poet Lore, NDQ, The Pinch, New Mexico Review, The Ilanot Review, National Translation Month, EastWest Literary Forum, and many others.. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he is also the author of The Red Fоrest (Fowlpox Press, 2018). His poems have been awarded RHINO 2022 Translation Prize. He lives in Kharkov, Ukraine.