His limbs in the night

by Natalya Sukhonos

—a flock of starlings.
The small of his back
caves in like a seashell kingdom, nacre

alive when light pierces the waves.
He sways his legs as he lunges forward
the sword, his face in a deep grove of pines.

When he finishes
the form, his body is a waterfall.
Beauty, terrible beauty.

His body clenched into a fist
relaxes into a dance and springs up
to fight at a moment’s notice.

My husband doing tai chi:

My thoughts go home
when I grasp his sparrow’s tail,

when he parts my horse-wild mane,
shuttling back and forth until he finds
my needle at the bottom of the sea.

A bilingual in Russian and English, Natalya also speaks Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Natalya has a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. She is Assistant Professor at the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Zayed University. Natalya’s poems are published by the American Journal of Poetry; Haight Ashbury Literary Review; Saint Ann’s Review; Driftwood Press; Literary Mama; and other journals. Her first book “Parachute” was published by Aldrich Press of Kelsay Books. “A Stranger Home” was published by Moon Pie Press in 2020. Two of Natalya’s poems had been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. You can find out more about her work on natalyasukhonos.com.