'birds come home from,' 'what the tear hides,' 'Animal bodies.,' and 'This poem smells blue'

birds come home from

paradise and sing songs

the silence recedes

 


 

what the tear hides

spring is playing hide and seek

 

а winter feeling creeps into my heart

а tear freezes and doesn't dry up

 

inside the child the wizard dies

and becomes an adult

 


 

Animal bodies.

Kittens, bunnies, piglets, puppies, ducklings, babies, human babies.

Well, just grace!

And still –

forcemeat in the city market.

 


 

This poem smells blue

| | |

The color of wrinkles in the sky

Black shapes in clear water

This verse will be picked up by crows in the morning

And they will be thrown from heaven

On icy concrete heart rocks

~

All in vain

.

 

 

Mykyta Ryzhykh, from Ukraine, is the winner of the international competition "Art Against Drugs," bronze medalist of the festival Chestnut House, and laureate of the literary competition named after Tyutyunnik. They've been published in the journals Dzvin, Tipton Poetry Journal (2022), Stone Poetry Journal (2022), Divot journal, dyst journal (01.07.2022), Superpresent Magazine, Allegro Poetry Magazine (2022), Alternate Route (07.2022), Better Than Starbucks Poetry & Fiction Journal (07.2022), and Littoral Press (2022).

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Thursday, February 2, 2023 - 22:09