Poet in the Loop: Elina Petrova

Friendswood Public Library's off the page poetry series presents Poets in the Loop on Wednesday, September 17 at 7pm. Poets in the Loop is a Houston area poetry critique group with published and award winning poets. Join us for an evening of creative and insightful poetry. 

Elina Petrova grew up, studied, and worked as an engineer in Ukraine. She has a number of Russian and Ukrainian publication credits, as well as a book of Russian-language poems. Since she moved to Texas, her poetry has been published in the Houston Poetry Fest Anthology 2013, the Austin IPF “Di-verse-city 2013,” the 2014 and 2015 Texas Poetry Calendar, Harbinger Asylum, Spring 2014, Illya’s Honey, Fall 2014, and FreeFall (“Canada’s Magazine of Exquisite Writing”) Autumn 2014.

Polyphony

All that unites us is a chronicle of rays

and its mistranslations.

Moses depicted with horns by Michelangelo

for San Pietro in Vincoli,

but one example.

Then basics of quantum mechanics:

similar to the double-slit experiment,

thoughts strobe pearls of particles

through lonely pinholes to the screen

until they diffract, interfere –

now waves of interwoven patterns.

That’s how you reach me in 6000 miles,

sit on the corner of my bed and sigh.

Floundering on the edge

shapes a soul more sensitive

than the skin on a burglar’s fingers,

yet it’s nothing to be proud of:

a goldfish sees ultraviolet and infrared light,

butterflies smell pheromones from miles away,

a half-centimeter medusa can be immortal

in the polyp state, if not eaten.

When I think of you, the cat gazes in awe

at something slightly above my head.

I’m too awestruck - by prebiotic chemistry,

the illusion of blue sky over white light,

I’m touched - by people carrying on

like the illegal roofer who sends every dime he earns

to his children in Guatemala,

embraces them on Skype, for five years.

Complex and simple,

all that unites us is a symphony

by the One who told Moses on Sinai,

You shall not see me.

West Houston:

Light Over Neighborhood

At the hour of slack lounge chairs

and monotonous rotor blades

of a sheriff’s chopper circling,

colors become so intense

that tarnished driveways

glow like shist with apricot grains,

lawns float, unreal emerald,

through a pink haze of crape myrtles.

Garages are open: in a doorway

a neighbor stands in his shorts only –

a stout question mark

with a glass of carmine Thai tea.

The off-white, rheumy-eyed cat

walks through the quiet street and wails,

demanding his portion of tenderness.

Everything spellbound by last dabs of light

looks chokingly mortal

in its ordinariness.

~Elina Petrova

More poems by Elina Petrova:

Worry Doll & Texas Photos:Osan AB, 1969

Watch Elina Petrova read:
Kyoto Dolls & Lithuanian Elegy