People on the roads and in the gardens.

Sunny bunnies eyes, hands, sounds of whispers of people, plants, wind. Sheaves. State institutions. And in every way so rich. Fresh buns, honey, clean water, hot morning coffee, cold morning dew, evening clean air, morning bells of hemingways, evening prayers and excitement: suddenly someone will hear, suddenly someone is still in heaven.

The abundance of grass, the variety of fire, the rain, the light, the mud of the roads, the nonsense of the neighbors, the flights of birds, the scent of flowers, the black circles under the eyes : the marshrutka[1]are not adapted to happiness.

I don’t know what to do now … the woman despaired.

Everything will change tomorrow! her husband’s hope.

When I grow up, will I not become an adult? either the hope or despair of the child.

Hotel room for one person.

The address of the former. Lover’s phone. Despair. Tears of silence.

Little boy with a toy in his hand and hope in his heart. Kindergarten with painted wallpaper. Kindergarten is like a garden. Eyes, like beetles, and wants to fly, like Saint-Exupéry. The mother finally comes to the nursery after a long working day and takes the child home. The guard nods disapprovingly. The mother pretends not to notice. The country pretends not to notice. The guard finally falls asleep quietly on the post. The robbers finally wake up calmly and take up their criminal activities.

Taxi again …

Apology of good and mythology of evil. Three dots. Question mark. Two for punctuation. Four for content. Three for the essay[2]. The teacher puts his hand over the journal with grades and for a moment …

A woman sings the aria of a virgin at the opera house, as if she were in fact a virgin. And the night club, which is not so far from here, is about to close due to vandalism and – law enforcement officers, and above them – someone else and – someone else, according to the hierarchy.

A cup of tears, drunk with a trembling grandfather’s eye.

Firecrackers under the window.

The final stop – the cottage.

Curves. Hands, their intersection. Plexus of bodies.

Animal bodies. Kitten, bunny, piglet, puppy, duckling, baby. Well, just grace! And still – forcemeat in the city market.

Umbrella instead of blue sky, grayness instead of self.

Abyss underfoot, comet tails, space rockets.

Movies after ten in the evening, when the younger sister finally goes to bed. Sometimes she’s really mad.

The afterlife of my grandmother’s village.

Chocolate Santa Claus, who remained in the refrigerator from the New Year holidays and miraculously survived.

The face of untruth. The face of the grass.

Walt Whitman, Charlie Chaplain, Uncle Misha from a kiosk on the next street.

Bookshelf of the spirit.

Perfume associations.

A birthday present, and a huge cake (and cousin’s complaints about low wages).

Burning. Giants. Giant mountains. Giant people. Mountain people. And somewhere nearby – stone ceilings of misunderstandings, Easter eggs of complaints, easels of cries, dwarfs of humiliation – as soon as it is tolerated.

“New songs are always reminiscent of …”. Key: “Delete message”.

Stars above your head, a dream of space, grass, roadsides, a smile on your face – and we are on the way to a fairy tale, but it’s time to grow up.

In short, it is impossible to convey this feeling of a home that no longer exists …

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[1] Marshrutka (Ukrainian: маршру́тка) or routed taxicab, are a form of public transport, which originated in the USSR. They are still present in Russia and other countries of CIS, Baltic states, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkmenistan, as well as in territories outside the former USSR, such as Bulgaria. The role of the modern marshrutka is theoretically similar to the share taxi, which uses minibuses in some other countries. The first marshrutka was introduced in Moscow, Russia, in 1938.

[2] An unsatisfactory score with 12-point school system of Ukraine.

Mykyta Ryzhykh is from Nova Kakhovka City, Ukraine. They are the winner of multiple awards for their poetry, as well as a scholarship for young artists from the Ukrainian government. Their work has been widely published.