Zoobar

The mist was everywhere. It was a lovely night. Or so I thought when I walked out of the hotel I was staying at with Mark. I briefly stopped at…

Griboedova 13

Back in the 90s, my family occupied my long-deceased great-grandmother’s house in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, the former…

Hotel Ukraina

As I look down from where I stand I can see the beautiful bend of Moskva river, the busy highway of Kutuzovsky prospect, cars rushing…

About my grandmother

Every time I walked into the dorm where my grandmother used to work as a…

love is…

that beautiful, 
beautiful thing
that is love,
i’ll tell you what love is,
in case you never felt it
(which is highly unlikely).
love is…
love is the first and (hopefully)
the final draft,
a poem with accented/unaccented,
a scansion that perfectly 
fits into the iambic pentameter
yet, there’s always one line…

racism

‘the white man’s burden’ — 
i never knew of that;
i was raised among
the cultures — 
everyone of a different color.
my first english teacher — 
jamala, 
turkmen,
spoke perfect american.
i was born so fortunate,
among the diffirent races
where the whites were probably
the one percent of many.
i never knew of racism…

to my gf

when i look at you,
what do i see?
how do i look past
what you intend to say,
portray?
for me, you are — 
the pure sunshine,
no, really, you are…
your thick and long 
and glossy hair
touching elbows,
the pale white skin
and eyes that speak eternity
the Buddhism the Dharma,
the east in its oblivion
and…

space

the sound waves 
that shriek beyond your lips
and travel through the space — 
they send me in the airspace
to chase, to pace, 
to brace myself
disgraced, misplaced,
forgetting time and space 
again.
your words audaciously 
trespassing 
send me back to that 
birthplace,
the point of anyplace
where it all started.
why…

covid-2019

covid-2019
nothing has changed for me
except i can go out for a week
but there’s nowhere to go out to
my two favorite libraries are closed
people stay a meter away
everyone wears a mask
so you cant see whether they smile
or cry
chained at home without being chained
you can go now for a week
but there’s…

need

the need 
to heel,
to feel 
a little less
inadequate,
to feel 
as though
you matter,
scatter 
words 
on paper,
screen, 
or mobile app;
an act 
of putting 
mind at rest
by saying it 
aloud — 
a verse 
to heal the pain.