“A Serb farmer used a grinding machine to cut in half his farm tools and machines to comply with a court ruling that he must share all his property with his ex-wife.” – Reuters report
I thought she would take half of what was ours
not half of what was mine.
Things she could never use.
So let me take my tools beyond the earth.
I am in the barn, cutting harrows
into halves and peeling hammers
at their hidden spines.
Cattle scales and plows split in useless pieces
lie in their last dirt.
No one can be satisfied. The world
comes in parts. I am only reducing it
closer to its hidden face.
What will I do with the cow?
What does anyone ever do with the
things that won’t be shared?
Valeria Tsygankova is an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania studying English and creative writing. Her poems have appeared or are upcoming in Chantarelle’s Notebook and campus publications Penn Review and The F-Word. Valeria was born in Moscow and grew up in the Philadelphia area.