I don’t feel safe in this world.
Helicopters frighten me —
and the word “shelter.”
Like a child… just like that —
small,
screaming inside me: “help.”
Behind my glasses,
tear-stained eyes — I hide them in a crowd,
in an impossibly hot June, once upon a time.
Anxiety tears at my soul.
Reality
instills
fear.
I hear the word “drone” more often than
my own name.
Unfortunately, alas, from now on.
What will become
of us?! (Well, of course — a rhetorical question).
My vers libre pulses,
prolonging, perhaps, an author’s lifespan.
Will they become, in form,
aligned with the times?
I will spend everything the Russian language has.
Go back —
into the past —
for a while — to find inspiration there.
Because in the present, there is nothing to rejoice about.
And not through the back door into the future —
passing through all obstacles.
To reduce
pain to nothing,
and to let tears of happiness fall from eyes —
someday.
Let fire scorch my face,
let unease cut through my stomach —
I will bring
pain to the cross.
Its details — in verbs,
in whose endings
a whisper of a scream and quiet weeping hide.
The vast world hurts.
Waiting for that very path home —
where, at last,
the sky is peaceful above,
and in our hearts — peace lives.
Author Portfolio
Makhmutova Alina Railevna
Pen name: Ana May
Russia, Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan.
Author of three books. Poet, writer, photographer. He writes poetry in verlibra or free verse. Prose in the genre of auto-fix.
Member of the Organizational Council of the International Literary Association “Creative Tribune” (ILACT)
Responsible for the organization of the Friedrich Schiller International Literary Contest
Alumna of literary schools: BAND, Creative Writing School
Graduate of the RUDN University program “Russian Literature of the 20th–21st Centuries”
Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania program “Modern and Contemporary American Poetry”
Laureate of international and Russian literary prizes. Awarded diplomas and certificates for contributions to the development of world literature and the strengthening of international creative ties. Recipient of medals for contributions to the development of Russian literature
Published in various editions across:
Russia, USA, France, Spain, Italy, Albania, Israel, England, India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Africa, Bir Tawil, Greece, Iraq.
Works have been translated into multiple languages.
