three poems

by Mykyta Ryzhykh

American ark

Mom doesn't know how to breastfeed after surgery

And in the few ads they write that they don't rent apartments to people of this nationality

Clouds overhead like overripe oranges

The air is like after an explosion and it becomes difficult to breathe

A baby stroller was given out for free at a center for helping the disadvantaged

And the whole world cracked like the American ark Titanic

The nightclub where she cleans at 7 am stinks of some kind of crap

Incomprehensible remnants of steam are like a bird of freedom looking for an air cemetery

Black water

Nobody will wash the body under water or in the rain

Moreover for several days now these breasts these hips this torso seem alien

The smell of someone else's sperm remained forever in the respiratory tract like radiation

The right to memory and the right to oblivion were pushed out along with the vomit of memories:

He almost smashed her face with his left hand while with his right he tried to squeeze her peach breast with all his might

The left hand was clenched into a metal fist and the right hand was like a soft feather

During the day he was a decent family man and a successful careerist

And at night he turned into a dog with saliva at his mouth thirsty for a female

His movements were not human, but rather like those of a mad beast

With both hands he covered young Ellie's mouth until he came inside

The next morning Ellie did not go to work but sat all day under the forceful shower water

And even now six months later Ellie is still afraid to leave the house

The walls of her apartment are covered with mold and the emptiness has become a scream

Her vagina is covered with mold and the scream has become an explosion

Every day ends at night and every night is a small daily death

Black water like bloody oil continuously flows from the shower head

There is no one to sell this oil to for many dollars

This bleeding cannot be stopped by anything

Mushroom

Mushroom pickers picking mold on my fish spine

A basket full of ashy cast-iron nights and red bony sunsets

Cigarette after cigarette, leaves fall on my skin and fall suffocates

I love your ashes even though you're a plague and I'm a non-smoker and move ineptly like a corpse

One of my lovers kept his screaming fingernails under the couch

He ripped out nail after nail every time I went to his house

I always went to his place only drunk enough to feel something other than pain

To feel something nice instead of death in every gulp of semen

That death peeks through my windows every time I have sex

I could fit a nuclear bomb up my ass

I get lonely every night when I get home from work

So every night I try to find a new lover (all my friends and exes die after touching my skin)

I don't have enough paychecks to pay my utility bills on time

I feel like I have to work solely on enthusiasm

Once arabian man bought me spaghetti after fucking me for 20 minutes (nobody ever fed me like that again)

I'm hungry like a wolf in a forest of buried frozen throats

I'm like a mouse kissing a cat's claws against my will

The taste of sperm is tedious

Men stopped fucking me (they stopped loving me even earlier)

The chief engineer is unbelievably stupid

One day I just ordered a young guy-whore, but I was only able to cry on his lap

The chief engineer sent me on unpaid leave

A month later I quit, signing a non-disclosure agreement on state secrets

Another month later I realized that because of my dismissal I would no longer be hired for any scientific or political position

Six months later, my former boss, the same chief engineer, got a promotion

Then I realized why: the next day he stood in the front row of those receiving awards at a ceremonial meeting

That day our president announced the successful testing of a new nuclear bomb

Photo of Mykyta Ryzhykh

BIO: Mykyta Ryzhykh, an author from Ukraine, now lives in Tromsø, Norway. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2023 and 2024. He’s published in many literary magazines іn Ukrainian and English: Tipton Poetry Journal, Stone Poetry Journal, Neologism Poetry Journal, Shot Glass Journal, QLRS, The Crank, Chronogram, The Antonym, Monterey Poetry Review, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry and many others.