Explosions The sounds fill up the airinto moments when you don’t expect itthough you always feelthat something is about to happenbut stillsounds fill up the roomand the numb question of what that wasechoing from the ceilingand rolling on the floor to the doorssound fills up my headI lean against the door jamband listen listen listento the…
Fellow Poets The poetry will live foreverI tell them into the walkie-talkieon the frequency available only to us –they just smile here is Ihornow he’s a squad leadercleaning his assault riflewith the muse’s feathershe knows he’s just a fang in the jawof the hungry beast here is another Ihorhe used to roll the grass snakes…
Lightbulbs Surprised they have been shouting and pointing fingers for a long timeuntil they realized that’s how death looks like This giant glass-eyed fishwith tombstones instead of scaleswhere did it come fromwas the city inundated by water It’s the worst thing outside todaythis grapefruit sound of the scales touching the window glassthese empty eyes, like…
13.03.2022 to Iryna Shuvalova and Yurii Andrukhovych we are not another year older but the war olderthe number that could describe how much we’ve been through doesn’t even exist||||||||||||||||||| now we are older than our bodies |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| grandparents one war older then us were always sayingthat we were so lucky to be born in a…
Silhouettes You see his speedas 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 silhouettesof your neighborsas they move through their nightly routines.Your own windowsare covered with the duvet. You are more alone,remembering the porcelain…
Relocation As I moved into the first house I ever owned,thousands of Ukrainians migrated to the air.Now they typed memes; now, they roseinto the stratosphere. It was multitasking,some said. Some were walking their dogs,but fingers softened, fists unclenched, letting goof the small spool of the leash. It was spring, then,and no one could own–or grasp–anything.The…
Ctrl+Z They give us Zand we give them ctrl+Z or cmd+Z ctrl-tZarbalanced by a clown cult of each personalityand therefore of none poems are quite mutecomplex meaningless empty because if the story then it’s bullshitbecause if allegory, then it’s nonsensebecause if hyperbole, then at once it’s a rocket and bomb emojibecause if understatement, then it…
From the Sonnets of Victory O the Almighty Judge, O Thou, the High!I humbly pray Thee: let the righteous win!And let the holy spear, so light and thin,Drive out the armored foes and make them fly! let the triumph of Thy host be nigh!Let on the hopeless brink a CherubinCome down from Heaven in the battle’s dinAnd make…
Such Love . Such love it is, a hot lump in your throat;It is without any halftones or relative meanings,Loved not half-heartedly but with the full sun and sea,It is loved hyacinth-like, violet-like, and unconditionally.It is so uncovered and raw, like an early morning,It is so striking that you can’t tell if it heals or…
And When I Made This Final Step. And when I made this final stepand fell into the deep pitmy friends stood all around meat the very edge and each was holding an assault riflecarved out of woodand a handful of soilwarm and dry and my pleading did not matter anymorebecause when the oldest one calledevery…
A Taste of War . At my favorite cafenow everything will havea strange taste.Coffee will be bitterfrom the tears of childrenfrom Bucha,and the cream will be saltyfrom Mariupol defenders’ blood.And the fragments of bombs,which broke Chernihiv and Kharkiv,will squeak on your teeth every time.At my favorite caféI’ll look back and won’t seethe familiar facesof relatives.In…
.#BuchaMassacre .there are bodiesbut no words no words noneonly bodies lying around what can those words do anywayagainst brute forceagainst their hatesuch that even wild beastsare incapable of itsuch that you don’t even knowto which kingdom to attribute these creaturescause biology has no such categoriesno dictionaries have any such words none no such words anywhereI…
