Cheap movie

by Peycho Kanev

World War II
Somewhere in the Balkans;
Small village with ten cottages.

In the middle
Is the church:
Body like old woman
With the cross on the top.

All the houses turned into
Ruins from the bombing
And the air raids.

On the muggy streets
Corpses of animals:
Ducks, goats, cows, chickens,
Frozen in the dark wind.

No people in sight
No children’s laughter,
Stillness and black clouds
Over the ramshackle rooftops.

The only man alive is the village’s idiot;
He enters the church and tie around his neck
The rope of the bell-
He hangs himself.

His body goes up and down
Like some drunk angel;
Jumping puppet from the hand of
God.

The bell tolls empty in the morning air,
One can hear the call for miles around;
Everything is calm now
And yet something is wrong

One white duck appear in the entrance
Of the church,
Leaps into the sky and goes higher in
The clouds.

This happened so many years ago
And yet I prefer it to your cheap war movies,

Because, you see, our souls are not
Pigeons.