Ardita Jatru writes

The most vilified woman in our neighborhood

The most vilified woman in our neighborhood was Eli.

She was raised in an orphanage.

We all knew, but we hadn’t seen

Eli circulating nude at home

without panties at all,

shameless, 

and ward boys guarded every evening

on the terrace of the opposite block

to see Eli without her panties through windows

with that beautiful thing bared

and her jutted out breasts as fresh apples.

One day, someone had written on her door,

"Eli, I want to fuck you"

There yelled Camille, Lilly and Jia.

They took rags, swept off and scoured Eli’s door

Shameful, what the kids would read.

O Lord, what woman they had in their palace

and they closed within a few hours their husbands.

And there was a day

that Eli went abroad forever

and there sprung a great tranquility.

Finally, the mothers of boys got rid of her

The whore went away, they said, that's it.

On the terrace of the opposite block

remained some small footprints

and boyish craving waiting for Eli

to appear naked as before

with that beautiful and bared thing.

--tr. Laureta Petoshati 

 

 Lady on the Stairs -- John Mann.