"if I am not being killed..."
by Iryna Shuvalova
translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps
if I am not being killed
do I have the right
to talk with those who are being killed
as an equal
do I have the right to hurt
if I’m not wounded
or complain
if I haven’t suffered losses
do I have the right
to sleepless nights
if sirens
do not wail here
now death’s proximity
lies on the table between us
like a loaf of bread
with a knife baked into it
if I am not being killed
what can I say
to those
who are
whose language has been cracked open by death
so it no longer resembles itself
now –
we no longer speak
the same language
so
if I am not being killed
do I have the right
to want to hold you
as tightly as
I used to before
when neither of us were being killed.