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In this episode of Elixir, Helen is talking to Albina Kovalyova about two of her own poems.
In Dark Waters
In dark waters
The waves come crashing through
This young love, just born
Into the dark sea at storm.
I roam
Through the world coming through
The news
As the narratives get tangled and confused.
Trying to pull them apart
I lose your hand, held tight.
The calamities of words stream through and
Conjure up the images and ghosts
Of old times and more horror yet to come
They say a million is already gone
From the destruction of the last few years.
As the memory of your scent and touch fade
I grab hold of the air filled with pocket holes
I cannot hear the music from before
Just the drumbeats of war.
The dream becomes darker.
Shall we continue the dance
In the shadow of the next big wave
Unknowing whether we can be engulfed
To the point of no return?
There are no lifeboats here.
A black sail appears on the horizon.
And then your eyes find mine.
There’s a glimpse of hope, of strength and of abandon.
Here is my hand, lost and found again.
Train to somewhere
What if you were somebody different?
What if the road had been curved
To a different location
What if we had travelled it both?
If only a moment of transference
Instead of the spiral to rage
Perhaps then we’d be somewhere different
The place of arrival would change.
Our train at the platform has split
One side has two blinking lights
The new destination will glimmer
But the other split carriage is dark.
The creak of the wheels and the movement
Of going somewhere, yet unknown
And the view from the window’s familiar
I think it’s the train to call home.
I want to look back at the carriage,
What’s left of the unity that
Until recently travelled together
But alas, is no longer intact.
We speed up into the sunshine
The passengers here are all ghosts
They look at their phones or at windows
And I’m left in this space on my own.
The pathway is a straight line to somewhere
At some point I ought to get off
And call it arrival and call it deliverance
Breathe out a sigh, and let go.
Albina Kovalyova
About the poet:
Albina Kovalyova
Television Journalist / Director
Albina Kovalyova