Mariya Deykute, USA-Kazakhstan
Japan Kills 333 Minke Whales
Where anger swells
Where the drams drum up a dread
There you will find me
A bright blood flower for your crown
Where the boats eat seas
Where the sweet sap drips into the heart
We shall hold tight to a rope
We shall—
What brings you to a whale’s funeral, my hermit shell?
The mistaken scent of dead bees
The sidewalk littered with stars
In the breakstones satyrs weep
Their reeds waterlogged
A man can leave his human core on land
Murder crawls into the shell and swelters
The whale sang his song for no one else
Where his belly swells
I will bring flowers
Where his heart swells
I will bring flowers
Where his eye lies blind
I will bring—
Tambourines, tangerines, tan knees
Under the moss inside the water—
Where the satyrs weep, they weep for me
You hold a degree in gun worship
Milk milkweed
Where my grandmother kept the bread
You will find me
A warm stone to lay on your liver
A man can hold a harpoon to a pregnant star
even as his fish heart his man heart his milkfed heart wails
What brings you to a carnival of trees, quicksilver?
The sky aching, a live manatee, a lost whale
Come here
Where the stones open their hungry mouths
Where the bricks open their tender mouths
Where the sky suckles them raw
Sandy’s Song
Mariya Deykute is a Russian and American poet, translator and educator. A graduate of the UMass: Boston MFA program, Deykute currently lives and works in Kazakhstan. Her poetry and essays have most recently appeared in Soundings East and Seventh Wave Magazine.