a lustrous apple falls off the market stall
tumbles and rolls down the messy road
the ground is all bespattered and footworn
a tired stallkeeper takes the apple, puts it back
unsold produce is covered with a grey tarp at night
gets ripe then rots according to nature’s plan
a dirty apple with a battered side cannot sleep
nor stop thinking of that road and the meaning of life
by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2022
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all;
There are none to decline your nectar’d wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (1855-1919)
Public Domain Poetry
blue sky, yellow grain
winter’s leaving ukraine again
a ploughman’s cycle without end
i say life for all & death to kings
god’s got his tombstones all in a row
dominoes waiting for the drop
it’s all i can do not to cry a river
here in the dark breath is adjourned
i’m checking notifications again
you were last seen five hours ago
does god really think no one’s looking
so i’m trying to remember instead
the shape of hope & all that’s to come
& the hedgehogs we saw in kyiv
the warm hearth of your mother’s kitchen
your father’s childhood in chechelovka
our river walks & your brother’s games
the shadow cat i left behind in dnipro
so i’m trying to remember instead
shared sun salutes in an upstairs room
it’s all i can do not to cry a river
do you remember the hedgehogs of kyiv
i wish them well in forever sleep
& stand with ukraine in the fog of war
i’m thinking of you & the shape of hope to come
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2022
when finally the winter’s regime
hugged with a gentle vise
once the hectic mainstream
got locked in a stasis of ice
a roar swelled from slander
antheming to sacred shit
both turned into frozen meander
adorned with a bilious split
prickly slush wrapped up tighter
rhetoric and gagged criticism
like a pearl torn from the peak of a mitre
the globe rolled down a glaring schism
by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2022
o demon face
may you reach the end of yourself
so that you will know
you will know that no one had to die
your lies have led to a thousand blooms
set alight in the silence
your crimes have made them feel too much
everything then nothing
the bodies you’ve threshed underfoot
are the seeds you’ve sown of your destruction
their scarlet heads now reach and sway
freedom cries scattered to the wind
and the wind remove all trace of you
hie thee into damnable night
your brutal answers went unquestioned
now circling back to haunt you
o barrel chest
may you reach the end of your hollow self
you know that none had to die
you fucking know
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2022
unbolt me 