White Stork Requiem
Vincent Hostak
March 9, 2022
Solomenka is a multi-residential district on the subway line in Kyiv
The White Stork, the Ukraine national bird, can be found in the city
Sometimes on nesting platforms.
Solomenka at daybreak
wind in the narrows
grazes ledges and windowpanes,
sounding choirs of spirit-flutes
through the tenements
Should we heave through the tunnels,
climb from the Metro,
greet daylight’s breach through the dust motes?
Do forces shoot at running game?
Are there rules at all?
The spoils? Minerals lying
beneath these tube lines,
charms dangling in silver-white veins
they’ll crush in the mills
World without brush, moss or us
Is this what you scheme?
Nothing for the nesting White Stork
to fuse into wreaths
Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living near the Front Range of Colorado south of Denver. His recently published poems are found in the journals Sonder Midwest and the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas and as a contributor to the TPA. He writes & produces the podcast: Crossings-the Refugee Experience in America.
