Poem: "Bothering Baba Yaga's House"
This poem came out of the September 8, 2009 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from je_reviens and sponsored by dormouse_in_tea. It features two pieces of Slavic folklore (Baba Yaga and Rusalka) and snippets of Russian language (which I hope appear intact).
Bothering Baba Yaga’s House
It was quiet on the Georgian border for once,
And the U.N. peacekeeper, tired of keeping peace,
Decided to go looking for some action.
Through the forest he went,
Brushing past the strange soft conifers.
He followed the sound of running water
To a little clearing in the woods.
There stood a large white cottage
And a small chicken house, on legs,
With writing above its tiny door:
Дом ромовой Бабы Яги
Black hens scratched and pecked in the yard,
Overseen by a black rooster with a beady eye.
A girl came out of the house, smiling but silent,
Her pale hair framing her fair face.
He grabbed her -
She kissed him -
And the young man found that he could not breathe.
He struggled, but she moved in his grip like water
And he could not hold her away from him.
Then an old woman came out of the house,
Cackling through her iron teeth.
Baba Yaga and her daughter Rusalka
Cut the meat from the man’s bones,
Bundled it into their cauldron,
And swept away all traces of him
With an enchanted broom.
When the troop came by, later,
Asking if anyone had seen their missing man,
The women replied, “Нет, нет,”
And spread their empty hands.
Then one of the men muttered
That they had come to a bad place
And better leave while they could,
And so they did.
The women were, after all,
Quite full.
Bothering Baba Yaga’s House
It was quiet on the Georgian border for once,
And the U.N. peacekeeper, tired of keeping peace,
Decided to go looking for some action.
Through the forest he went,
Brushing past the strange soft conifers.
He followed the sound of running water
To a little clearing in the woods.
There stood a large white cottage
And a small chicken house, on legs,
With writing above its tiny door:
Дом ромовой Бабы Яги
Black hens scratched and pecked in the yard,
Overseen by a black rooster with a beady eye.
A girl came out of the house, smiling but silent,
Her pale hair framing her fair face.
He grabbed her -
She kissed him -
And the young man found that he could not breathe.
He struggled, but she moved in his grip like water
And he could not hold her away from him.
Then an old woman came out of the house,
Cackling through her iron teeth.
Baba Yaga and her daughter Rusalka
Cut the meat from the man’s bones,
Bundled it into their cauldron,
And swept away all traces of him
With an enchanted broom.
When the troop came by, later,
Asking if anyone had seen their missing man,
The women replied, “Нет, нет,”
And spread their empty hands.
Then one of the men muttered
That they had come to a bad place
And better leave while they could,
And so they did.
The women were, after all,
Quite full.