Drawing Lesson Poem by viacheslav kupriyanov

A child cannot draw
all the sea
a child cannot draw
all the land
his meridians never converge
his parallels meet
he lets the round earth
slip from its net
of coordinates
and drift up into the sky
his distances
are out of step
frontiers
are beyond him
he believes
mountains should be
no higher than hope
the sea should be
no deeper than sorrow
happiness should be
no further than the earth
the earth
should be
no bigger than
a child's heart

From Russian into English by Francis R. Jones,