A. Molotkov
Final Report
It's safer with a heart in bubble wrap. Do I
still have a license? This rusty
handle opens my head. Forgive me: I haven't
had a chance to clean up. Would you
hold my skeleton's hand? I don't have all
my bones to show at the checkpoint. I falsified
my fingers and my fingertips. I made
omissions on my entry form. I forgot
to say I love you.
Ghostliness
Is your body corporeal or
remembered? You left a silence,
an apple core, me in the corner, staring
at a spiderweb. You hung
a light ray across the river
valley beneath the mountain, then
removed the river. What
do you say to those who still
have hope? What about a heart
on a wire, a brain with cutouts? Literal
wire, literal things I won't mention. I
dive under an iceberg, deeper,
deeper, waiting for it
to begin.
Commitment
i take a fast boat down your blood stream to see
what you're about because i want to love
you when i return i will hold your hand for
months ask new questions i'll seep through cracks
in your skin where you need me
Born in Russia, A. Molotkov moved to the US in 1990 and switched to writing in English in 1993.
His poetry collections are The Catalog of Broken Things, Application of Shadows and Synonyms for Silence (Acre Books/Cincinnati Review, 2019). Published by Kenyon, Iowa, Antioch, Massachusetts, Atlanta, Bennington, and Tampa Reviews, Pif, Volt, 2 River View and many more, Molotkov is winner of
various fiction and poetry contests and an Oregon Literary Fellowship. His translation of a Chekhov story was included by Knopf in their Everyman Series; his prose is represented by Laura Strachan at Strachan lit. He co-edits The Inflectionist Review. Please visit him at AMolotkov.com.