One Hot Day, Poetry

Revised Edition: LukivPress (Canada), 2019. Previously published as Her Story, a collection (Poetry of the People, USA, 2003). // An excerpt // The Kitten // A blonde girl / Exhales mist / Into the night. / Her eyelashes are wet; / She wipes her cheeks dry, / But she wears no makeup: / She is too young for that. // She calls again / Into every dark space, / Tree, and bush, / Into every molecule / For her kitten. // A car rattles past; // Her brother should not have / Left the porch door open / Three nights ago! // She bites down hard. / Her mother, / At the kitchen window, / Shrugs her shoulders / And smiles between / Peach-coloured curtains. // The blonde girl calls out, / More weakly, / Under the yet-barren / Mountain ash / And along the mucky trail / That weaves between / Pussy willows / To the lane. // At the lane she turns to / Glance at the roof, / Searching for a kitten-silhouette / In moonlight. // She ignores her mother's / Frown, / And later, she cries / Herself to sleep / In her hard bed; / She bites down often / And snores. // In the morning / She glares at herself / In the mirror. / She locks the bathroom door, / Shutting out her brother, / Her mother, too. // Today she will wear / Mascara, // Even if her brother laughs / Or her mother disapproves. // She is unskilled / With the little brush. / Her hand shakes, / But she is a determined / Young lady / Today.

• • Author: Dan Lukiv
• • Publisher: Independently Published
• • Publication Date: Nov 16, 2019
• • Number of Pages: 46 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 1708767924
• • ISBN-13: 9781708767921