Kateryna Michalicyna (Ukraine) – poetry

K a t e r y n a Michalicyna

(SIMPLE THINGS)

children knock down the last apples from a naked tree someone knocks down a plane for some it’s easier that way because they’ve forgotten: apple stick in the transparent orchard where there is nothing but wind and naked trees and the most natural motion: throw and catch

you can’t catch a plane even the Earth is powerless and the angels let alone little you

you can’t catch a plane can’t catch it in the naked sky there are no branches to get stuck in

children are laughing and knock down red-cheeked wormy sun-dried apples

Translated by Arco Van Ieperen

Kateryna Michalicyna (1982) – poet, translator, editor. Born in the Rivne region, she now lives in Lvov. She has a degree in biology from Rivne University and English philology from Lvov Ivana Franki University. Michalicyna works as assistant-editor at Old Lvov Publishing. She has published volumes of poetry: Powiń (2002), Pilihrym (2003) and Tiń u dzerkali (2014), as well as books for children: Babusyna hospoda, Łuhowa liryka, Chro roste u parku, and Pro drakoniw i szczastia. She has translated books by J.R.R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, and Sylvia Plath. She has translated Tomka w krainie kangurów (2011) by Alfred Szklarski from Polish. Her work has been published in Poland in “Radar” and the anthology “East-West. Poems for Ukraine”