Mykyta Ryzhykh
I'm learning to notice your legs
after the war
in vain
I can't notice your legs
after you returned
from the war
***
the wind itches my hand
I dream of touching your skin
my fingers want you madly
but there is no one on the seashore
I know that you fuck with your loved ones far away
and the lonely wind itches my hand until it bleeds
***
pluck out my eyes at night
draw my pupils during the day
take the trash out of my head
I love you to the point of madness
my head is full of garbage from the past
***
Someone's voices were heard in the distance
Someone's voices were heard nearby
Someone's voices were heard very close
Voices are everywhere
Unbearably loud
But a deaf man doesn't care
***
Touch me with your silent hand
You'll never touch me with your hand
Don't kiss me
My cheeks are too cold for my lips
I won't kiss you
Your cheeks are too cold for tears
Love flutters in the air like a butterfly
Love is still in the air just like it was in the beginning
Everything goes back to its place
You are without me and I am alone
Mykyta Ryzhykh 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, 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.