Daniel Charms, 31 Plays, #29

The beginning of a very good summer day

Right after the rooster crowed, Timofey jumped out of his window on to the roof and frightened all the passer-by's. Peasant Hariton stopped, picked up a stone, and threw it at Timofey. Timofey suddenly disappeared. What an acrobat! - cried the human tribe, and a certain Zubov ran into a wall smashing his head. Ohhhhhh! - exclaimed a woman with an abscess. But Komarov gave this woman a swift left-right and the woman ran off howling into a passageway. Fetelushin was passing by, laughing. Komarov walked up to him and said: "Hey, you, lard!" and hit Fetelushin in the stomach. Fetelushin leaned against a wall and started to hiccup. Romashin spat out of his window from above, aiming at Fetelushin. Not far from there, there was a woman with a big nose beating up her child with a washing basin. And a young, chubby mother was rubbing her little girl's face against a brick wall. And a small dog with a broken leg was lying sprawled on the pavement. A little boy was eating something rather revolting right from a spittoon. By the grocery store, there was a long line of people waiting for sugar. Women were arguing loudly pushing each other with their bags. Peasant Hariton, after getting drunk with methylated spirit, was standing in front of the women with his pants undone and uttering bad language.

This was the beginning of a very good summer day.