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Is That a Way to Hang

Ainsley Morse and n+1 Russia editor Bela Shayevich are currently on tour with I Live I See, their translations of the great Soviet poet Vsevolod Nekrasov (1934–1999), published by Ugly Duckling. Friday, September 13, they will be at Melville House in DUMBO. Saturday, September 14, you can hear them at Molasses Books in Bushwick. Sunday, September 15, they’re having a poetry rave in Baltimore.

the cause of death
was living

the immediate cause
of death was

living in Moscow


it’s hard to even

say which one is worse

managing
in the temple

holy fooling
in the main police directorate

investigating everything
there is out there
or believing in everything
there is in here

and  the private ones
have their own rights

as the public ones
have their own rights

only nobody  here is too fond
of the very word
right

is it worth it
even wasting the words
on any old idiot

so many idiots

words

any idiot
is not such an idiot

but when it is to his benefit*
then he’s an idiot*

and otherwise
even an idiot can have fun

*rather
that’s what he thinks

butting in on another person’s rights
they wouldn’t say that about you
any
idiot thinks that
this is
somehow
to his benefit

just like any other idiot just like him would


The moon

Oo
The moon
Oo
The moon
Oo
The moon
Oo
The moon
Oo

Oo sky
Ay


VERSES

Growth of
The uttermost subsequent earliest advancement of measures
According to
The uttermost earliest subsequent advancement of measures
By
The earliest subsequent uttermost advancement of measures
On
The subsequent earliest uttermost advancement of measures


PANORAMA BEFORE DEPARTURE

Drops
Ropes
Clouds
Clouding on all sides
Clouds
Hill Hill
Hill hole
Hill hole
Smoke like gray
Smoke like white
Smoke like smoke like smoke like smoke
I was
here
I was not
here
I was not here
I was not here
I was not here
I was not here

I was
here


Moon moon

Moon moon
Moon moon
Moon moon

The way you hang
Who hangs like that
The way you hang

Is that a way to hang


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