In the days after

By Veronika Gorlova

Kompot cooling on the balcony
Sour pickles from the Polish deli
Dzień dobry
A pint of strawberries for one dollar
April evening snow
Грусть затмевает мою способность жить
A golden candle down to the wick
A glass of wine covered with a slice of bread
Black and white photos taken in Bratsk
Others taken in Ukraine when he was still a child
Calls from Russian-occupied Moldova
Canned peaches
Baked salmon with lemon and dill
A picture of a death certificate
Three spoonfuls of rice
Three rounds of vodka
это должна была быть я
Crispy apple peels
Birds that interrupt our sleep
The window of a Lincoln going down on its own
Live videos of cardinals at my mother’s house
Beavers rebuilding their dam, somewhere in Belarus
And him, somewhere in the past

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​Veronika Gorlova is a queer, autistic, Jewish poet and writer living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people, also known as Vancouver. Her family immigrated to Canada from Ukraine when she was five years old, and she has lived in many parts of the country. Second runner-up for the 2024 Magpie Award for Poetry, her writing appears or is up and coming in Arc Poetry Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press and Pulp Literature, among others.