by Katerina Stoykova
A man and a woman in a bedroom
The woman lying in bed,
the man sitting by her,
rubbing her ankles and feet.
Nobody speaks.
She thinks about her trip,
he thinks about his work.
The spouses are together
in the same room,
which is rare.
His gaze wanders.
He reads out loud
titles of self-help books
scattered across the floor.
Healing your aloneness;
Inner Bonding;
Do I have to give up me
to be loved by you?
She has shut her eyes.
In a minute he’ll kiss her
goodnight and leave
for another room.
He had given her a cute
coupon for massage
of two body parts
and tonight
both were redeemed.
Once
I bit into an apple аnd said,
He and I will be finished
by the time this apple rots.
I kept it at my desk;
the bitе marks curled
inwards, the white flesh
scabbed towards its softness.
This lasted days upon days.
Then I said to myself,
I want to save this apple,
so I locked it in the fridge.
Already the apple
was leaning
into its wound—head first
without a face
in its cold home, furrows
growing deeper.
From time to time
I’d pick up the apple
and assess.
It’s okay, I’d say.
It’s okay, considering.
Katerina Stoykova is a Bulgarian-American poet, living in Lexington, Kentucky. She writes poetry and prose in both English and Bulgarian. Her Bulgarian-language books have won three distinct national poetry awards. Katerina owns and operates Accent Publishing, an independent press publishing predominately poetry. She hosts Accents radio show for literature, art and culture on WRFL 88.1 FM. She co-wrote the narrative feature-length film Proud Citizen and acted in the lead role.