Part of a SPECIAL EDITION of several poems over the course of today in solidarity with President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine
Sarah Key
At Night I Dream of Mariupol
The city always had a special smell:
a bitter aroma of frozen grapes
smoke emanating from family houses
the smell of dust settled to the ground by the long-awaited rains.
What do I do tomorrow?
I used to have a thousand plans and a million wishes.
How many steps to the sea?
I knew exactly
how many steps
to the sea and how many
trees in the park’s central alley
there were.
Dark, cold room without windows or a glimpse of light.
The walls and the floor are shaking.
Gasoline for bread
bread for cigarettes
cigarettes for firewood.
Tore off wooden floors and windowsills to use for fire to cook.
And we went to get water
stepping over the bodies of people
who went to get water the day before.
They drank water from puddles.
Happy are those who found natural springs.
We heard a piercingly loud whistling sound followed by a loud blow.
People just lie covered with sheets. Everywhere.
We saw blood on the children’s faces.
I saw only my neighbor’s shoe on the floor.
There was constant darkness, day and night.
Author’s Note: This poem is a quilting together of the voices of Anna Murlykina, Kristina Khodunova, Petro Andrushchenko, Hanna Drobot, Serhii Dolhopolov, Marianna Saenko, and Liubov recorded and translated from the Russian and Ukrainian by Olena Ivantsiv, Kateryna Iakovllenko and Tteiana Bezruk, journalists from Ukraine, as quoted in “What Happened on Day 45 of the War in Ukraine,” The New York Times, April 9, 2022.
Lisa Andrews is the author of The Inside Room (Indolent Books 2018) and Dear Liz (Indolent Books 2016). Her poems have appeared in Cagibi, Cordella, Gargoyle, POSTstranger, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Zone 3, as well as in anthology Braving the Body (Harbor Editions 2024), edited by Nicole Callihan, Pichchenda Bao, and Jennifer Franklin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, visual artist Tony Geiger.
Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.
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