Julia Klimenova

My grandma had a dark blue brooch.
It was just glass, few pennies' worth.
Held to the light, it flashed, as bright
As all the diamonds on earth.
...

People are works of art.
I've known some human sculptures:
Elegant, cold, detached,
Closed in upon themselves.
...

Me and my solitude,
A strange relationship.
By turns embracing it
Or wriggling in its grip.
...

I hear the echoes of songs,
Collect the truths no one heeds.
I pick up signs, gather clues,
String them together like beads.
...

The dust on the shelf -
Dry tears of the book
Neglected for long
Unused to the touch
...

I tame my fears
Accepting them
I get to know them
By degrees.
...

Having to decide
Between 'want' and 'must',
I chose the latter
Held on to it fast.
...

Yet another city left behind.
And I wonder if it still exists,
If the city hall clock strikes midnight,
Towers looming up, wrapped in the mists.
...

Grappling in my head
For the word to say,
When my mind goes blank.
Like a barren desert
...

I was a Grecian urn,
Once buried, then unearthed,
Forgotten by the sea.
The wrinkles of my cracks
...

Pangs of joy
Piercing, acute
Unexpected
Stab like a knife.
...

There is no final truth in life,
No questions that can just be settled
Once and for all. We don't arrive
At any terminus. Accept it.
...

In the rush hour
On the subway
Fantasizing:
If the time could
...

Through the fields I went.
Breath of the wind, smell of the earth.
Not a soul in sight.
Barefoot, the grass tickling my feet.
...

Reading for days, months, years
Somebody else's thoughts,
Swallowing them so fast
There's hardly time to chew.
...

You have a face of a nun,
Of a saint.
Oh, let me paint you! -
I'm a sinner. Why
...

Cyber tango.
Two poets dancing.
...

Why do we FALL in love?
Is it a sin?
Are we like aircraft gone
Into a spin?
...

I bear the burden of your love.
It is a debt I won't repay.
It weighs me down, I bend, I hunch.
How can I make you go away?
...

It was late spring.
That day I woke
And felt my things
Stare hard at me
...