Author Archives: Tetiana Aleksina

a Guest

You say that others’ mistakes can’t teach.
Time is cruel and doesn’t cure.
May I help you? I’m not really sure
but I promise to listen to your speech.

You say that darkness is the brightest light,
that the loudest scream is mute…
I nod. I don’t argue with the whiteness of soot
and the preeminent grandeur of blight.

You shout and whisper. You laugh and cry.
My task is to put a kettle on fire.
You run round the room like a gyre.
I take cups from the shelf and slice up a pie.

You finish and go out into the night
with salutary lightness inside your chest.
…I don’t get the money from my nightly guest.
My royalties are my permission to write.

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2015

the Pythia

How have I perfected the smoky oracle-art?
I too often set on fire my credulous heart
and tried to read a nonexistent story.
When my core became cold and hoary
I finished cheating myself with these air-built hopes
and got a job in the Temple of Apollo on the Delphi slopes.

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2015

an Invitation (Tea-for-Two)

Well… there’s a hellish private tea-party.
Are you brave? Put on a mask of the Cheshire or the Hatter.
Pretend that you’re fucking arty
And that you’re a God of refined chatter.

But beware of the owner, little sweet Alice.
She’ll offer you a Mad-Poisonous-Mushroom-Brew.
The truth serum which smells like sweet anise…
And she’ll start to torture you with Twenty-and-One Shades of Blue.

Did you fuck up at least once? Kicked down the stair!
Get out! Without umbrellas and underwear!

P.S. Want more details? Please, look here!
(Hmm… and take a spare set of dry underwear…)

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2015

a Circus, Part #1 (Fragment #006)

…I woke up on a big heap of rotten beetroot and zucchini. It had a terrible stink… No! It was more than that — a hellish stink! I coughed and tried to open my eyes.

I was in semi-darkness… though a few minutes later my eyes adjusted to it. But, I wasn’t too happy with the picture I saw. And the main reason for this was the goon who was sitting on the wooden box opposite me. He looked sore, and his feathers were shabby and mucky. “He doesn’t look kosher…” Why do such stupid thoughts come to mind at times like this? Is it a self-defense mechanism when confronting madness?

Fuck! Yesterday I had relished the sterling French accent of my Chilperic as he entreated me to be more prudent, to not have common affairs with this hillbilly Henry… I didn’t listen to him, unfortunately… At that moment, the choice of my eyeliner’s color to pair with my evening dress had been more important to me… I was a fool! Stupid chicken! I tried to recall the previous evening. It was still a fog in my memory, just a gray and sticky fog… Suddenly, I recalled.

A howitzer!

It had begun with a conversation about the howitzer barrel aimed at the banquet! (to be continued)

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2015

My special thanks to the one and only Cyan Ryan,
a great friend and an excellent editor,
for grammar corrections and improvements this essay!

Inevitability

Inevitability is so close.
There are many words and little sense.
I realize that it’s an overdose,
but less can’t make me truly tense.

It’s easy. Just deny all natural laws.
Let it flow through your dry inside.
Inevitability is so close…
Just trust yourself to its wide tide.

The end of agonizing suspense.
There are few words and a lot of sense.

by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2015