Zvizdal by Robbie Chesick

Poem title: Zvizdal Poet name: Robbie Chesick Poem: Already old when Chernobyl exploded the Exclusion Zone claimed them. 30 years of growing glowing turnips, the shocking water. He hobbles bow legged, away from the last cow fallen. His tough and wrinkled babushka. The lame horse eating wild mustard. Patched rags, wood for joints, crooked Adam and the splinted Eve. Well. First Stalin sent me to defend the Soviet Union. The winters. Now, no Stalin— no Soviet Union. Well. This grass bends beneath my boot. How well I’ve bent. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Robbie Chesick “Zvizdal” is forthcoming in Brine, collaborative chapbook from the HC5 collective. Robbie Chesick lives, writes and plays in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish Nations. She works as a clinical counsellor in private practice. Her poetry has been previously published in Vallum Magazine.