Madonna del parto

 
Chi è hítija, chi è hítija, the angry driver shouted.
A classmate had thrown a stone pinecone, which ricocheted
off the asphalt and struck the window of the bus.
As the smaller one, out of collective guilt, I
pissed myself. I. G. Plame introduced this, Ales
introduced pricky instead of peeing. Glavina Jordan yawned
without covering her mouth. Someday
they’ll stop burying the dead. You lie, and you’re hanged.
You’re Hitler. To step over the beetle is a more serious
crime than cutting off half of the world and throwing it away
without anyone noticing. Abraham limps.
Isaac builds a fire. Piero della Francesca dreams
of grounds. His membrane—a woman’s womb in labor—
cleans, restoring the missing half of the world.

—translated from the Slovenian by
Christopher Merrill and the author