716 | The heart regenerates – VOLJA HAPEYEVA, Belarus

Painting by Natalia Fernández Díaz-Cabal

The heart regenerates

more slowly than other organs

and is never renewed completely,

that’s what it says in the textbook.

this means
I think

that everyone in there will remain.

the left side of one person’s body will be erased

a face will disappear

a new one growing in place of the old.

languages, years, names

will intermingle

in my garden of mutants

where we lost our way.

VOLJA HAPEYEVA (Belarus),

English translation Annie Rutherford

from: “In my garden of mutants”
Arc Publications, UK, 2021