Today's poem is by Oksana Maksymchuk
A Guest of War
In a bed we set up
on the floor
in the hallway, where the walls
are most solid
with no windows to burst
she rolls into a ball
and falls & fallsnot hearing her own sobs
she got so used to themPacking and hauling bags
throwing bags over train tracks
suitcases and small bundles
of severed arms, hands
straining to sign
some desperate last message:
the name of a loved one
instructions for making
Grandma's heirloom pieIn an endless cellar
that's now her mind, she expands
testing the possible exits
with the outer limits
of her own body, exposedbare flesh now
no skin
Tweet
Copyright © 2023 Oksana Maksymchuk All rights reserved
from The Manhattan Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission
Home
Archives
Web Weekly Features
Support Verse Daily
About Verse Daily
FAQs
Submit to Verse Daily
Copyright © 2002-2023 Verse Daily All Rights Reserved