Ilya Selvinsky
Thief

I came out to pull a job.
Here comes a square - and dig
That gold watch on his gut. ‘Hey, Man,
You got the time?’ I get near...

I only wanted to take Inis watch.
Some smart-ass hisses, ‘The fuzz!’
Sure I scrammed. Behind a bale and a scale.
Cops are devils in a pack.

They start yellin’: ‘Stop him, catch him!’
Oh, Christ... They’re coming my way...
You see, I wanta live; my heart
Beats like a rooster that won’t die.

This blind alley — no sides, no out.
...Against a locked warehouse
I pull out my five-shooter,
All warm from my gut.

Oh well — You gotta die sometime:
With company it’s best.
The crowd jammed side-streets, into the dark,
And formed a lengthy lane.

And I passed through — a slippery king —
Took off my cap and winked:
Today, no luck, sweet Madame Death,
So long till next we meet.

Translated by Vladimir Markov and Merrill Sparks