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Appendix I - ‘Don’t Take Aim At My Heart
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
Summary
Guard, my brother
guard, my brother
I can hear you walking on the snow
I can hear you coughing in the cold
I know you, brother
and you know me.
I bet you have a photo of a girl in your pocket.
I bet you have a heart in the left side of your chest.
Do you remember?
You used to have an exercise book with sketches of swallows
I used to dream of walking with you side by side
on your forehead a small scar from my slingshot
in my handkerchief I keep your tears wrapped up
your Sunday shoes left behind in the corner of our yard
on the wall of the old house our childhood dreams
written in chalk glimmer still.
Your mother has grown old mopping the stairs of ministry buildings
in the evening she stops at the street corner
and buys some coal from my father's cart
they glance at one another and smile
just as you are loading your gun
and getting ready to kill me.
Your morning eyes have set behind a helmet
you exchanged your childhood hands for a rock-hard rifle
we both hunger for a smile
and a bite of quiet sleep.
I now hear your boots on the snow
you will soon go to sleep
goodnight, my sad brother
if you happen to see a bright star it means I’m thinking of you
as you rest your rifle in the corner you will turn once again into a sparrow.
And when they order you to fire
shoot me elsewhere
don't take aim at my heart.
Somewhere deep within it your childhood face still lives.
I wouldn't want you to wound it.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Tasos Leivaditis' TriptychBattle at the Edge of the Night', 'This Star Is for All of Us', 'The Wind at the Crossroads of the World', pp. 95 - 96Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2022