The path I’m following
Is a surefire road to hell.
But from there, by a velvet ladder,
Warbling blithesome ditties,
I’ll return to earth
Tucked out as a tomcat on the roof.
And I’ll live with a little girl
In her little pink, prim bedroom,
And I’ll be purring softly again
But about what nobody’ll know.
Yuri Odarchenko
From Quite a Day (1949)
Collected in The Bitter Air of Exile: Russian Writers in the West, 1922-1972
Photo by Zippora Lux: Celestial Cat
