5 Poems
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in other words
to describe the war
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A toy bear nailed
To the floor with four paws
Or is the bear cub not a toy at all?
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I love you so much that the sky turns inside out
but spending the night with you is a crime
so said Jesus
minefields of gratitude for pain and happiness burst like veins on the temples of a suicide
tiny scarabs of minutes dissect the eye socket crying
farewell tigers sleep in the silence of the jewish temple
Jesus wants to die (forever this time) so that Mary stays alive
but the father is against such a course of events
the dust is silent of the Jewish sands of tears
«For whom did Jesus die and rise again?» – the shadows cast by the trees ask
the stone does not answer – it lies here since crucifixion
***
Love is a mousetrap for mice. Although the level of fidelity hormones in the body varies in different types of field mice. We all fall in love with kittens playing with us and tearing our throats out. As a result, our guts are scattered all over the earth. Wars begin with loneliness because no one loves anyone. But I don’t care, it’s better to fuck in the anal, baby. I can fit an entire hydrogen bomb in my mouse ass.
***
Who sucked someone’s dick before death if the mirror of the moon burst in half? If you have to die, it is best to die during a blowjob, sucking out the last moments of life. How much blood is around: even birds cannot count the blood. How much grass is around: and every grass dies endlessly. How many poems are everywhere: what modern poetry can look like while children are dying under rocket fire? Suck my death. Suck my verse like a lollipop whore: we’re all icy. This is like catching the breath of your lips in the wind trying to guess and invent your name: again and for the first time. The white bird, meanwhile, is hiding in the white snowfall. The sky is so white as if no one has died
Mykyta Ryzhykh has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and has been published many times in the journals Dzvin, Dnipro, Bukovinian magazine, Polutona, Tipton Poetry Journal, Stone Poetry Journal, Divot journal, dyst journal, Superpresent Magazine, Allegro Poetry Magazine, Alternate Route, Better Than Starbucks, Littoral Press, Book of Matches, TheNewVerse News, Acorn haiku Journal, The Wise Owl, Verse-Virtual, Scud, Fevers of the Mind, LiteraryYard, PLUM TREE TAVERN, ITERANT, Fleas on the Dog, The Tiger Moth Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Angel Rust, Neologism Poetry Journal, Shot Glass Journal, QLRS, The Crank, Chronogram, The Antonym, Monterey Poetry Review, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, Ranger magazine, PPP Ezine, Bending Genres Journal, Rat’s Ass Review, Cajun Mutt Press, minor literatures, Audience Askew Literary Journal, Spirit Fire Review, The Gravity of the Thing, Ballast Journal, Star 82 Review, The BeZine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Synchronized Chaos, boats against the current, The Decadent Review, Corvus Review, American Diversity Report, Unlikely Stories, Triggerfish Critical Review, The Moth, Ripple Lit, Rock & Sling, Meniscus, Rabid Oak, ZiN Daily, Stone of Madness, The Cortland Standard, Quarter Press, Schredder, Wilderness House Literary Review, Poetry Porch, Chewers & Masticadores, The Big Windows Review, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Third Wednesday, Cosmic Double, Dialogist, Consequence, Cool Beans Lit, Poets Choice, BarBar, and Ice Floe Press.
Robert Frede Kenter is a writer, visual artist, performer, & publisher/EIC of Ice Floe Press (www.icefloepress.net). Robert’s work appears widely internationally & has been nominated for multiple Pushcarts, & a BOTN. Robert’s new chapbook, FATHER TECTONIC is available from (Ethel Zine Press, 2025) https://www.ethelzine.com/shop/father-tectonic-by-robert-frede-kenter. Poems recently in: Pissoir (UK), Otoliths (Australia), Cable Street (USA), HarpyHybrid (USA) Olney (USA), Wasteland (USA), Acropolis (UK), Watch Your Head (Canada), Storms Journal (Ireland) and many more. Robert studied performance & visual art at Antioch College & currently lives with ME/CFS, which shapes and informs artistic practices, process & explorations: of marginalization, visions & hallucination, dreams, spiritual & social change. IG: r.f.k.vispocity shuffle, icefloe22; Twitter: @frede_kenter.
Art: Clusters, a visual poem (c) 2025 by Robert Frede Kenter
IceFloe Press 