By: Anna Cates

*
Odesan outskirts
falling on disturbed soil
dry locust leaf
*
cold April
heavy on his shoulder
air bomb
*
partisans ford
the swollen river—
songbirds
*
red horizon
giving sway to blue
night’s swathing peace
*
war orphans
what their eyes absorb
each snowflake
*
the forest’s depth
those who know the way
grow only more lost
*
one comrade winks
another weeps . . .
long winding road
*
his beaded brow
his broken lip—
abused detainee
*
exposed to heaven
roots of a capsized oak
koloradi* swarm

*a bug invasive in Ukraine and the nickname given to pro-Russian separatists.

*
Icarus Rising

behold his outstretched hand
the spill of white pills . . .
suicide?

Yet another consequence of the Russia-Ukraine war:
an escalation of the illicit drug trade.

methadone
climbing Jacob’s Ladder
before the crash

###

Dr. Anna Cates is a poet, writer, and nature lover, who lives with her two beautiful kitties in a small town in Southwest Ohio and teaches writing, literature, and education online.  She is founder/editor-in-chief of Pages Literary Journal.