Poems, Vilnius Review

Poems from 2017 issue of Vilnius Review—so grateful to Marius Burokas for publishing them!

A sample:

Citizen (Lina)

I braided my hair until I found a bloody stalk,
yanked up with a sharp breath, as if I’d drowned.

My dreams of Gediminas:        
his tungsten ribcage, 
fangs     flashing, 
corpus          blown apart, 
singular         carbon   flecks          
Lupus*-born.

I severed myself,      stabbed past nakties langai,
shadowed a flax-sprout child 
spinning about the market, 
her ankle ribbons stained & torn.

Vilnius streets sought me in shop windows.
Then creamy, desolate, iced faces     
retaliated me for being elsewhere native.
    
I transformed myself in her freezing rivers—
Lietuva burst a floret, yare devil, and a pixy.

*Lupus: Latin, wolf constellation



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