5 Poems
1I leave the black room and see the night
There are no butterflies visible outside or inside the stomach
Only black figures surround everything around
The cold dissolves after turning on the heater
[That’s what I call the sun now]
I haven’t seen the sun for a long time
And my grandmother will never see anything again
2
I have a few hours left before the apartment doors are locked. Outside.
3
Nobody will come
Nobody’s coming back
Nobody will rise again
There’s not enough air for anyone
No one has enough love
4
The glass against which the bird is pressed is silent
I conduct the notes of silence
The grass warmed by silence grows
Music turns into vapor
5
Oak trees say nothing at night
However, just like during the day
My hands are overgrown with leaves
I’m full of humility
Mykyta Ryzhykh is a Ukrainian poet. Nominated for Pushcart Prize. 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, Ice Floe Press, 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. Mykyta is the winner of the international competition Art Against Drugs and Ukrainian contests Vytoky, Shoduarivska Altanka, Khortytsky dzvony; Additionally, he is Laureate of the literary competition named after Tyutyunnik, Lyceum, Twelve, named after Dragomoshchenko.
Art Banner: form flora and fauna function, asemic art by Robert Frede Kenter (c) 2023. Twitter: @frede_kenter. Insta: r.f.k.vispocityshuffle, icefloe22.
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