*****

one of my poetry teachers once said

to write poetry you need to come up with a concept

that's what I came up with

I imagined all day

that I'm a gnome

they especially helped me

red hair and uncut beard

Now I look at the world mainly

from below and on people too

and I like it

see all these giants

the way they walk around

and now they don't notice me at all

because they are busy with these giant things of their own

that don't concern us little ones

True, they laughed on the tram in the evening

watching me try to crawl under the seat

and for some reason their voices

became very polite and kind

when I told them

that I

dwarf

in the hospital where I am now

many

studied with poetry teachers

and call themselves fairies

witches and Caesars

none of them admit it

What

He

poet

Translation from Latvian by Dmitry Kuzmin