DOMOVOI
Helpless I watch the sun trace
across the asphalt—my voice speaks
when they are sleeping—
they do not know why I beg for bread
and salt—what feelings
are mine and what belongs to them—
when I arrived it was without
blood of chicken or goat—they did not sprinkle
the four corners of this one bedroom—
didn’t speak my name or say their prayers—
let the dog disturb me in his haste
to shout at the glass—he is
the only one who knows—snarling,
suspicious—the fur raised
around his slim neck—should feel
instead weight beyond cunning—terror—
what he cannot know—what,
if abused,
could destroy him. Sometimes pain is felt
in one place but found elsewhere—
sometimes the sun when it moves
becomes something living
paorta-kremvax 