Souvenirs

BY JULIA ALEKSEYEVA.

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There is the one-morning surprise of Odessan snails,
the refusal of watermelons, that word America and how dry
and confounding it tastes in my mouth.

In my uncle’s garden I smell potatoes being reaped
and clutch onto grandmother sleepily,
apron-cheeked and fading slowly.

Here the line for radioactive milk is long and spiderly;
it holds an iota of an ion isotope
in breast, in lung, in neck, and hair.

Of all else I am unafraid,
even Baba Yaga
hiding chicken-footed in the forest.

Of course, I have never seen the forest,
only Kiev—its blossoming lilacs,
strawberry balconies,
sun-mottled dirt.

The New Romantic Speaks

BY JULIA ALEKSEYEVA.

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Let us beat our hearts
              against rusted dumpsters
 
Let us read meaning
              in the cracks of alleyways
 
Let us plunge forth
              into silver cities
​
Let us give ourselves over
              to the spinning earth
 
Let us be led by our noses
              like wolves
 
Let us cover our faces
              with the dust of the road

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Julia Alekseyeva teaches film and media studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of the award-winning graphic novel Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution (Microcosm, 2017), and the forthcoming book Antifascism and the Avant-Garde (University of California Press, 2025). She is an immigrant, socialist, and activist. You can follow her on Instagram and X (Twitter) @thesoviette.