THE EVENING

you are angry
no
and yes
you spread your leaves and you spread your arms 
like a withered hyacinth that no lover can save 
in this world forgotten by all invented gods
like the sun wheel on the chariot of the sky your soul rolls 
along the surface of the air
you ride
you fly
and you float
like a white swan in black syrupy water
you are dying of thirst
you are dying of love
you are dying without love
all the answers and questions have already 
been put aside in a folder with a shelf life
your face has broken the mirror
the mirror has broken your face
I am waiting for your return again and for the first time 
and the air that my lungs breathe is also you
it is impossible to have nostrils and memory and not know 
that you are not my flower and never belonged to me
and what does the garden talk to itself about except loneliness
all the flower shops are already closed and the evening 
and the evening 
and the evening talk show is about to start on TV
you smell of loss and death
no you don’t smell old age
you smell like everything to me
Once in night
mirrors talk to silent
immobilized shadows
the corpse wrapped
in a blanket does
not move either

Mykyta Ryzhykh is a Ukrainian poet. Nominated for Pushcart Prize, publications include Dzvin, Dnipro, Bukovinian magazine, Polutona, Tipton Poetry Journal, Stone Poetry Journal, Divot journal, dyst journal, Superpresent Magazine, Allegro Poetry Magazine, Alternate Route, Better Than Starbucks, Littoral Press, Book of Matches, TheNewVerse News, Acorn haiku Journal, The Wise Owl, Verse-Virtual, Scud, Fevers of the Mind, LiteraryYard, PLUM TREE TAVERN, ITERANT, Fleas on the Dog, The Tiger Moth Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Angel Rust, Neologism Poetry Journal, Shot Glass Journal, QLRS, The Crank, Chronogram, The Antonym, Monterey Poetry Review, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, Ranger magazine, PPP Ezine, Bending Genres Journal, Rat’s Ass Review, Cajun Mutt Press, minor literatures, Audience Askew Literary Journal, Spirit Fire Review, The Gravity of the Thing, Ballast Journal, Star 82 Review, The BeZine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Synchronized Chaos, boats against the current, The Decadent Review, Corvus Review, American Diversity Report, Unlikely Stories, Triggerfish Critical Review, The Moth, Ripple Lit, Rock & Sling, Meniscus, Rabid Oak, ZiN Daily, Stone of Madness, The Cortland Standard, Quarter Press, Wilderness House Literary Review, Poetry Porch, Chewers & Masticadores, The Big Windows Review, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Third Wednesday, Cosmic Double, Dialogist, Consequence, Cool Beans Lit, Poets Choice, and BarBar.