Alla Gutnikova

a short story to make people cry

when they were taking me for interrogation after the raid
in an unmarked white van
one of the guards gently turned
his phone to me and typed three words
россия будет свободной

a colloquium on trauma and memory

to channel aggression, one needs affect
to catalog tenderness, one needs muteness
to live through catharsis, one needs catastrophe
glossary: aggression / affect / tenderness / muteness / catharsis / catastrophe. шо? а?

καταστροφή κάθαρσις

קתרזיס קטסטרופה שואה

i wonder why i lied to myself that i had never been here
and was totally ignorant of this place
everything was never and then it began
was not is not and never will be
(keynmol mer plus jamais nie wieder)
stop stay abandon ashes

swan song of shira shirim. fragment

how much time do you need to get dressed? captivity.
babe alone in babylon. baby bambi in the lap of babylon.
gentlе tread, light step. with a gentle tread — to the enemy’s camp.

you don’t care if you go down in history as barbarians?
have you heard of the butterfly effect, the barbra’s?