Art after War

Oksana Maksymchuk

1 Minute Read Time

A photo of a mural, known as the "Kyiv Avenger" in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a painting of a Ukrainian soldier in full gear, sitting in a field of grain with a long, Ukrainian flag laid out behind them. The soldier weaves together small, battle airships. — Photo by Daria Strategy on Unsplash

Luminous—the ink you pour
around bullet holes
to paint blooms

pain turned to
petals, terror—to
style and stigma

Ovaries fill with
juice, and we too learn:
lives are fragile & can get broken

As for life, it says yes
Always—yes

No use
denying it

Oksana Maksymchuk

is the author of poetry collections Xenia (Piramida, 2005) and Lovy (Smoloskyp, 2008) in the Ukrainian. Her English-language poems appeared in AGNI, the Irish Times, Paris Review, The Poetry Review, and other journals. Her debut English-language poetry collection, Still City (2024), is with Carcanet Press.

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