Silhouettes
You see his speed
as he jumps between cars.
It is worth that one moment,
the incredible beating of the heart.
It happens as if in a dream,
the purple darkness.
In wartime,
you can no longer see the silhouettes
of your neighbors
as they move through their nightly routines.
Your own windows
are covered with the duvet.
You are more alone,
remembering the porcelain skin
of the bathtub against your
skin, where you stayed
during air raid sirens,
no book, no candle, no glass of champagne.
There is the beating of your heart,
staying in place,
while everyone else is moving,
taking what they can carry.
You surround yourself with the pieces
of yourself.
.
Turning Pages
I am reading
the words he wrote
on the beach,
the hot sun baking letters
like insects, making him think
of famine.
She later
typed them up,
her fingers not used
to the placement of Cyrillic letters,
the sound of her banging
keys, sudden as gunshots.
When there is war,
it is one of the books
I can’t read.
The words seem smaller.
I want to read
about comfort.
I finally finish
the books on the shelves,
so I can take the words
with me. They can bounce
off my heart and move
through arteries and veins.
.
Olena Jennings is a writer and translator. She is the author of the poetry collection Songs from an Apartment and the chapbook Memory Project. Her novel Temporary Shelter was released in 2021 from Cervena Barva Press. Her translation with Oksana Lutsyshyna from Ukrainian of Kateryna Kalytko’s Nobody Knows Us Here and We Don’t Know Anyone is forthcoming from Lost Horse Press and her translation of Vasyl Makhno’s poetry collection Paper Bridge is forthcoming from Plamen Press. Glagoslav Publications released Absolute Zero in 2020, translated from the Ukrainian of author Artem Chekh, with Oksana Lutsyshyna; and Lost Horse Press released Pray to the Empty Wells co-translated with Iryna Shuvalova in 2019. She is the founder and curator of the Poets of Queens reading series and small press.
