A fly sticks to a strip, its life work.
In Hidden Acres, the town’s new development,
a man tests a chain saw
against a hunk of tree.
I drive the long way around
anything that reminds me
of myself—
easy sweets, the greasy,
screaming open all night restaurants
of my middle-aged blood.
A motorcycle cuts across
the day’s pale lawn
leaving behind an empty helmet,
its rider passed into oblivion.
In my daughter’s room
sand dollar chimes drop onto the windowsill
while two hermit crabs
inch toward a damp sponge,
a bright green peace sign painted on one shell,
a Harley flame on the other.
Dzvinia Orlowsky is the author of six poetry collections published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her first, A Handful of Bees, was reprinted in 2008 as a Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporary. Dzvinia’s poetry and translations have appeared in numerous anthologies, including A Map of Hope: An International Literary Anthology; From Three Worlds: New Writing from the Ukraine; and A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry. Her translation from the Ukrainian of Alexander Dovzhenko’s novella, The Enchanted Desna, was published by House Between Water Press in 2006. She is a contributing editor of AGNI, a founding editor of Four Way Books, a founding faculty member of the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing of Pine Manor College, and the founder and director of Night Riffs: A Solstice Literary Magazine Reading and Music Series. She teaches at Providence College. (updated 4/2022)
Orlowsky’s collection A Handful of Bees was reviewed in AGNI 42 by Mary Maxwell.
Orlowsky’s collection Edge of House was reviewed in AGNI 50 by Miriam O’Neal.