Birthday Party by the Tskhenistsqali River, by Anton Pooles

Birthday Party by the Tskhenistsqali River, by Niko Pirosmani (Georgia) before 1918

Birthday Party by the Tskhenistsqali River 

1.      
Ghosts walk upon the heads of party guests
lined up like Matryoshka dolls by the cliff’s edge.
 
2.      
A fisherman casts his net into
the pond where cows drink.
 
3.      
Men and women are wooden pegs
that attach the hill to the sky.
 
4.      
The bear is the size of the church,
the hunter is bigger than both.
 
5.      
Black birds rise like smoke from
the Tskhenistsqali’s long, white cigarette.

Anton Pooles

Anton Pooles was born in Novosibirsk, Siberia and now lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario. His work has appeared in an array of journals and magazines. He is the author of the chapbook Monster 36 (Anstruther Press, 2018) and the full-length collection Ghost Walk (Mansfield Press, 2022).