TWO POEMS

Ivanna Baranova

Problem

how
can it
be too much
if it’s what
i feel

EKG

everyone exalts
their own abject
plans this weekend
but my mind’s
social trajectory
is invariably
same
i take up
smoking again
to confirm
our compatibility
a salve
for the disconnective
impulse
you know
my body
can’t help
but dance
when i see you
on the platform
radiant somatic emblem
mirroring
these atomic
depths of me
congratulations
on your face
it’s a good one
i plagiarize
your essence
as a means
of revival
so in life’s
every iteration
witnessed
there’s you
all this time
and still
i’m shocked
by loneliness
displayed
in myself
misunderstanding
the stages
of dispersal
and manifestation
i see now
i was an obdurate
rain in this urban
suburb
i discovered
how free
i felt when
i stopped
taking cover
i resurrected
in the alcohol
of perfume
i said yes
to not saying no
i was communicating
with dusk
and intimately
the sky
saturated me
in its omniscient
magenta enclosure
i couldn’t help
but blush
and just like that
i became
gratitude’s
fullest expression
i carried
my heart’s
choreography
on an 8x11 sheet
i looked around
and forgot
what had been
taken from me
as soon
as i stopped
keeping score

Ivanna Baranova is a Guatemalan-Slovak poet based in Brooklyn by way of Vancouver. Her debut poetry collection, CONFIRMATION BIAS, from Metatron Press, will be released on October 11, 2019. You can order it here, and read Newest York’s interview with her here. “ekg” first appeared in bedfellows.