Soon as you're done with doing dishes

one for a time of much talk of liberty


SOON AS YOU'RE DONE DOING THE DISHES

by Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov

Soon as you’re done with doing dishes
Look — new dishes stacking up.
May I ask, what sort of liberty is this,
If one can barely just keep up?

Sure, you could leave the dishes dirty,
But here, from God knows where, they come
Complaining the dishes haven’t been done.
So where, then, is there room for liberty?

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translated from Russian by Matvei Yankelevich