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Genya Turovskaya

War blanks the old language
unmasks its mangling

the grotesque

damage all those bitten tongues

carnage catches in the throat

caged

innuendo canonical coal mine
canary
the blank page

becomes nakedly the only language

how many
millions
of raised white rectangles

would it take to take

the language back

who has the courage

Genya Turovskaya was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and grew up in New York City. She is the author of The Breathing Body of This Thought (Black Square Editions, 2019) and of the chapbooks Calendar (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2002), The Tides (Octopus Books, 2007), New Year’s Day (Octopus Books, 2011), and Dear Jenny (Supermachine, 2011). Her poetry and translations of contemporary Russian poets have appeared in Chicago Review, Conjunctions, A Public Space, and other publications. She is the co-translator of Elena Fanailova’s Russian Version (UDP, 2009, 2019) which won the University of Rochester’s Three Percent award for Best Translated Book of Poetry in 2010.She lives in Brooklyn.