I’m writing to share the latest of my translations to find home in a literary magazine. I’m continuing to translate the work of a Kyiv-based poet Olga Bragina, and this piece appeared in the latest issue of Fence Magazine (#43, Spring-Summer Issue).

I’m sharing the piece here, but please do click through to the magazine and buy an issue or subscribe for a year. Fence takes cool experimental stuff and they take really good care of writers and writing, and supporting a magazine like this contributes immediately to the vibrancy of our literary world.

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I want to go to an art show but I think what if they start bombing

the day after tomorrow is the first anniversary of the invasion      what if they start bombing

because who knows how many clones of that psychopathic KGB man are bombing us into the ground

because he doesn’t like our country and particularly my city

so what        I too often dislike this city        when we have traffic jams      black ice      intercity trains departing at six a.m.        I dislike it all      life might be more comfortable in any other city of Europe

and no I don’t think the way some do that the Motherland is sick but I love it anyway      no I don’t think the Motherland is sick      these thoughts belong to a different paradigm

my paradigm are the words of the Kyiv-born Golda Meir      “We want to live. Our neighbors want us dead. This doesn’t leave a lot of room for compromise.”

I’m so glad to know that art shows are opening in our city      I know they are opening