invisible metamorphoses
would you love me
if suddenly my gender
changed or my scent
the colour of my skin
the time of year
would you still love
if i were a flower and a stone
or a flower growing
among stones
and
generally
do you love me
in those blinks of an eye
when i am truly
there
storm
on your body – tattooed rain
falling leaves splashing
cars in the old town
and i –
my wet tattooed
clothes, torn shoes
and soaked hair
but there is no
umbrella
here
and no
you
on your body
wardrobe
i saw another person’s dream
trying you on for size
it washed and ironed you
hung you in the closet
then threw you away
– you were just too big –
occasionally i meet
the homeless man
who wears you now
finally, there is light in his eyes
hope
i don’t do the work i like to do
i avoid the people whom i love
i don’t talk to those whose presence i enjoy
only by doing dull things and
hanging out with shitty people
can i believe that the world is beautiful
By Aušra Kaziliūnaitė
Translated by Rimas Uzgiris
From THE MOON IS A PILL published by Parthian Books (2018).
Read The Queer Riveter in its entirety here.
Aušra Kaziliūnaitė is a non-binary, pan-sexual poet, performance artist and journalist from Lithuania. Last year Kaziliūnaitė’s selected poems, The Moon is a Pill, translated by Rimas Uzgiris, were published in English by Parthian Books. Kaziliūnaitė’s poems have appeared in various anthologies, and have also been translated into many other languages.
Rimas Uzgiris is a poet, translator, editor and critic. He is the translator of Caravan Lullabies by Ilzė Butkutė (A Midsummer Night’s Press), Crystal: Selected Poems by Judita Vaičiūnaitė (Pica Pica Press) and Then What: Selected Poems by Gintaras Grajauskas (Bloodaxe Books, 2018).