our private life has been invaded by the public, by the state. our borders are not where they used to be.
but you cannot order people not to be poor, you cannot order them to keep their distance if they have nowhere to hide or stand apart.
i have turned my house inside out with wallpaper.
#outdoorwallpaper
a tiny city apartment poem
1.
we
urge you
not to drink
from the common
cup
of poverty
2.
we have wallpaper and you have wallpaper
and the virus flies freely
in dwellings
only you come to us
with fines and billy clubs,
but you don’t invite us to your house
3.
what if
what if
my body has become
home to the virus
I think
I am caring
for my loved ones,
but in fact
I am destroying them.
what if
what if
my heart has become
home to
the virus of violence?
Darya Apahonchich has been posting the texts and photographs of her outdoor wallpaper poems on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks to her for her permission and her assistance in republishing them here. Translated by the Russian Reader
The Russian Reader 