Three Poems by Katerina Stoykova
Another Dream
the mailman leans
to kiss her
she pulls away
her face
yet leaves
her body pressed
he explains
the boxes of books
are going
to another’s address
pick them up there
he says and
dissolves forever
at the top
of a parking lot
she waits
for her love
to drive by
and together
to spiral down
then at the beach
she sees a shell
once she used to love
its pearl
she picks it up –
resembles
a slipper with no pair
she walks for days
and seeks
the sea is nowhere
So, You Miss Your Depression.
So, You Cherish Your Loneliness.
Oh, how good it feels
to be back in touch
with the auto-erotic self-pity.
Ah, the one-armed swimming,
the single oar circling
away from solace.
You don’t really want
to feel better, do you?
Stranded in the emotional soup
like a frog on a water lily,
what if you never write
anything better?
Anything ever?
What if you trailed mistakes,
year after year
in the branch tree of
bad decisions?
Potential is
as potential does,
despite how smart
you believe you are.
How far
have you strayed
from your real life?
What is the difference
between a bird cage
and a bird house.
What is the evidence
of the inevitable.
What makes sense
to the roaming mind
looking for land.
Raising the stakes
like a barricade
against reality.
Now I see danger,
now I don’t give a feather.
I want to perch on your palm
and home there.
Katerina Stoykova is the author of several award-winning poetry books and the Senior Editor of Accents Publishing, where she has selected, edited, and published close to 80 poetry collections. She hosts the literary radio show Accents on WRFL 88.1FM. Katerina acted in the lead roles in the independent feature films Proud Citizen and Fort Maria, both directed by Thom Southerland. She splits her time between the coast of the Black Sea and the rolling hills of Kentucky. Katerina writes, lives and thinks in two languages.