Mara
It’s okay to not want to participate
in that pivotal moment, a global economy
of hills. Listen to my dream. Last night I am in the park
there is a dog, desperately needs walking.
A frog, plastic inside an aquarium and a living one
in a jar, I can’t tell the living from the plastic one when I find them.
The water is dirty like a swamp, which I would think
would be perfect for a frog I would think
It has been too long the game is no longer
about winning, the goal
is not winning; a battle with yourself, your own body
your addiction. Wife, grandmother who weeps.
But she cries even after she is gone, and I wonder if there
is a heaven in infidelity, or perhaps they still like to blame.
Some biblical scholars dictate: rape is something that woman deserves to be punished for
Last summer I kept saying about my mom, that she killed
my grandfather over an item of clothing she desperately
needed and couldn’t have in a fit of entitlement. My arm hurt
and I could kind of see it happening
all over again
Alla Vilnyanskaya was born in the Ukraine and raised in the U.S. She came to Philadelphia in 1989 with her parents. She holds an MA from Miami University and an MFA from Columbia University. Her work has been published in several online and print journals. She is currently working on her first full length book of poetry.
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