Two Poems by A. Molotkov
/Theory of Anger, Dogs, and by the Way the Scars
A. Molotkov
When anger is gone, what is left? Just because history ends one day, can we say there is no room for permanence? We carry ours with us, for a while. New generations, new eternities – and so on. A letter in the mail, never arriving. A dog left in the cellar, with a chain on the neck where fur used to be. We call this memory. The bark. The scars. Say fear. When fear is gone, what is left? Is that what we call love? The letter is in the wrong mailbox. Small hands open the door.
Bridging the Memory
A. Molotkov
Each instant, a shadow
of the one before. I
am the shadow of a shadow
I used to be. When I
step into the light my shadow
gains strength, my life
grows longer. When we arm
wrestle we lay down
our arms. If my arms
were a bridge blood could travel
from my heart to yours, pausing
midway to admire the distance. Midway
to the cemetery I stop for flowers.
The vendor’s smile
is distant. The mountain’s
shadow lingers where
the mountain used to be. Our
arms are bridges tired from carrying
each other. I
wonder: would you mind
if instead of flowers I
bring the distance to your
resting spot.
Author’s Commentary: “Bridging the Memory” was long in the making — fragments were written over ten years, coalescing, colliding with segments from other unpublished poems, until the current form emerged after many hours of work. “Theory of Anger, Dogs, and by the Way the Scars,” on the other hand, arrived fairly quickly and was reinforced by some edits from my poetry group, The Moonlit Poetry Caravan. My work is not typically inspired by particular events, but summarily informed by the whole experience of existing in the world, and in literature. Similarly, these two poems arrive from outside the current context. They seem to be concerned with long-term effects of our life projects, in emotional and philosophical terms. My hope is that they will be current to some readers, no matter where and when.
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, Molotkov has received various fiction and poetry awards and an Oregon Literary Fellowship. He co-edits The Inflectionist Review. Please visit him at AMolotkov.com.
