POISON IN THE DNA

A. MOLOTKOV

 

I’m from a land of lack and slogans, where lives are cheap. Mine
is no different. I carry the expression on my grandmother’s face
when I last saw her. I’m from the rotten roots I reject. My blood is
bad from the start. One or another cancer lives inside me. My
grandmother waits for me outside my belief system. I don't have
one.

 

Sofia Drobinskaya. “At the bus stop. Tel-Aviv, Israel.” 2016. Photography.

 

  

A. Molotkov Photo.JPG

Born in Russia, A. Molotkov moved to the US in 1990 and switched to writing in English in 1993. His poetry collections are The Catalog of Broken Things, Application of Shadows and Synonyms for Silence. Published by Kenyon, Iowa, Antioch, Massachusetts, Atlanta, Bennington and Tampa Reviews, Hotel Amerika, Volt, Arts & Letters and many more, Molotkov has received various fiction and poetry awards and an Oregon Literary Fellowship. His translation of a Chekhov story was included by Knopf in their Everyman Series; his prose is represented by Laura Strachan at Strachan Lit. He co-edits The Inflectionist Review. Please visit him at AMolotkov.com.