Your speech
tongue in cheek, like descriptions of cocktails
in this bar full of handsome strangers
who won’t meet my eye
Mesmerized
by your own voice, you speak
dangling pick-up lines like the glossy jewelry
we Hellenes use to con barbarians
into opening their cities to us
At my throat, like an arrowhead—
a venomous shot of Muse
quivering, thrilling to consume
Eros, I say, knows no bounds
doubts not
whether to draw—of the bowstring
when to loose—an arrow
Reaching for Sappho’s knee
you describe a chariot
yoked with sparrows
and it dawns on me:
this is Hades, Alcaeus
You smooth out my gown, place
your hand
over my mouth
On my face, like an animal—
a full beard, a bald spot under
my laurel crown
Oksana Maksymchuk is the author of poetry collections Xenia and Lovy in the Ukrainian. Her English-language poems have appeared in AGNI, The Irish Times, The Paris Review, The Poetry Review, and other journals. Her debut English-language poetry collection, Still City, is forthcoming with Carcanet Press in 2024.
