THE LITTLE PRINCESS OF KHARKIV

There are new craters

on the moon all the time

in the shape of hopeless optimism –

 

every little step of the princess of

Kharkiv sends out a ripple

of untamed roses

 

blooming and bleeding back

to dusk – a new crater, new

fossilized vinok wreath –

 

every step in her little moccasins

the waking and withering

of a single-use civilization, every step

 

on a trail of soul flakes

and body crumbs laid down –

 

little princess of Kharkiv is forced

                                                                 to skip

around the moon as she flees

To earth from earth.