[ Ukrainian refugee poet Oksana Maksymchuk depicts life in exile
as “an endless cellar/that’s now her mind.” ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

A GUEST FROM WAR  
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Oksana Maksymchuk
January 1, 2023
Manhattan Review [[link removed]]

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_ Ukrainian refugee poet Oksana Maksymchuk depicts life in exile as
“an endless cellar/that’s now her mind.” _

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A GUEST FROM WAR

By Oksana Maksymchuk

In a bed we set up
on the floor
in the hallway, where the walls
are most solid
with no windows to burst
she rolls into a ball
and falls & falls

not hearing her own sobs
she got so used to them

Packing and hauling bags
throwing bags over train tracks
suitcases and small bundles
of severed arms, hands
straining to sign
some desperate last message:
the name of a loved one
instructions for making
Grandma’s heirloom pie

In an endless cellar
that’s now her mind, she expands
testing the possible exits
with the outer limits
of her own body, exposed

bare flesh now
no skin

OKSANA MAKSYMCHUK is the author of poetry
collections _Xenia_ and _Lovy_ in the Ukrainian. Her
English-language poems appeared in _AGNI, The Irish Times, The Paris
Review, The Poetry Review_, and other journals. She co-edited _Words
for War: New Poems from Ukraine_, and co-translated _Apricots of
Donbas_ by Lyuba Yakimchuk and _The Voices of Babyn Yar_ by
Marianna Kiyanovska. Oksana holds a PhD in philosophy from
Northwestern University.

* Ukraine war poetry
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