Everything

Portrait of Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova 1889–1966

Everything's looted, betrayed and traded, black death's wing's overhead. Everything's eaten by hunger, unsated, so why does a light shine ahead?

By day, a mysterious wood, near the town, breathes out cherry, a cherry perfume. By night, on July's sky, deep, and transparent, new constellations are thrown.

And something miraculous will come close to the darkness and ruin, something no-one, no-one, has known, though we've longed for it since we were children.

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