by Olena Herasymiuk
Translated from the Ukrainian by Viktoria Ivanenk

I am standing on the stage that
no longer exists
it’s not a stage — it’s a mass grave,
under it

buried alive, lie thousands of
men, women, and their children —

the dead, the living, and the unborn

by Natalka Marynchak
Translated from Ukrainian by Lada Kolomiyets

everyone will have their own story 
of broken paths and breathlessness 
everyone will have their own defended territory 
of roaring and laughing
I now have a heart 
of reinforced concrete
it knows neither pity  
nor comfort