1
In a tree — a child
In a blooming cherry tree — a child
in a white gown
White on white
in the night —
a child, warm from sleep
Climb a cherry tree
said the voice
in the night
All alone in a tree
in a globe of white
Her house on fire
shadows fluttering
bursts of light, shouts
Be with me, don’t
abandon me don’t reveal
Tremble with me
my tree, like a boat
Lift me up, my tree
like a hot air balloon
2
Like a wire
in a lightbulb
in a tree — a child
Current
passing through
filaments of limbs
Thin taut body
glowing in the dark
radiating heat
She thinks
anyone can
see me
this can’t
be
wake up wake up
3
Covered in drops of dew
a fruit, I fell from a tree
Gown clinging
to my skin
Heart clinging
to my ribs
Tongue against my palate
like a large slug
Silent, I lay
and watched
as the walls of my home
collapsed
my flaxen hair
turning white
4
Taken out of the flow
of time, I stand
in the presence of
the things that are
All my moments condensed
to a single point
I’m here and also
there
many in one
unified
In me, like a present —
a belief in my own
existence
Oksana Maksymchuk is a poet, scholar, and literary translator. Her poetry has appeared in Blackbird, Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, Sugar House Review, and other journals. With Max Rosochinsky, she co-edited an anthology of contemporary Ukrainian poetry Words for War, and co-translated Apricots of Donbas, a collection of selected poems by Lyuba Yakimchuk, and The Voices of Babyn Yar, a book of poems by Marianna Kiyanovska. She has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Oksana holds a PhD in philosophy from Northwestern University.
