Issue > Poetry
Victoria Givotovsky

Victoria Givotovsky

Victoria Givotovsky has had poems published in Arts & Letters, Nimrod, Rattle, Runes, The Bitter Oleander, Water~Stone and other journals. Her chapbook, Elegies and Other Love Songs, was published by Toadlily press in 2006 in The Fifth Voice. Two of her poems were selected for The Best of Toadlily Press, published in 2011.

Is There Nothing Then?

Is there nothing then
inside this charred heart?

Something trembles
like a door hanging by one hinge.

But a heartbeat?—No.

Down river, an ice jam masses
under a railroad trestle.

Who's on that train?

Small Rain

Western wind, when wilt thou blow
that the small rain down can rain?

—anonymous
(i)

I could move and see the sea,
but I do not.
This morning a green tree
intrudes its many leaves.
A west wind blows.
I wait for the small rain.

(ii)

I would move and see the sea,
But I cannot.
My limbs are rooted to the bed.
The west wind agitates
a thousand, thousand leaves.
Still—no small rain.

(iii)

I could move and see the sea,
but I will not.
The sea is for the dreamer.
Wind rips the tree.
I have no dream,
hear no small rain.

Lament

As time passes, as what's called life
returns, as days begin again
to differentiate themselves
into yesterday, tomorrow
and today, I now find myself
vulnerable to lesser sorrows:
his voice, but pianissimo
he never spoke that way before,
even as a child his voice was strong,
but now, being dead, he whispers
from unshut drawers, or partially
open closet doors, words hard
for me to understand so few
so pianissimo.

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