Photo by Fer Troulik
Naked in Skåne
Yana Sanko
I read it’s called pollarding:
the willow tree bodies are disciplined
into future temperance and left naked
with their alien bumpy skin
to face weekly storms.
Confident, moderately optimistic,
and as free from perfect
as naked bodies heated in a public sauna,
spreading on the terrace
squeezing sunshine from the wind
that scratches the Baltic Sea
in February.
Does the future wrap you
with one more layer of skin
when you are chilling outside?
Someone’s hip or knee accidentally
touches my shoulder.
The notion of social distance
is left in a locker. They want
to know what language it is.
No, it’s actually closer to Ukrainian.
I am taking in the steam, hoping
words like long-term planning
will melt away.
And I am walking back
as those hyggelig streets are
politely rejecting me.
Yana Sanko
I read it’s called pollarding:
the willow tree bodies are disciplined
into future temperance and left naked
with their alien bumpy skin
to face weekly storms.
Confident, moderately optimistic,
and as free from perfect
as naked bodies heated in a public sauna,
spreading on the terrace
squeezing sunshine from the wind
that scratches the Baltic Sea
in February.
Does the future wrap you
with one more layer of skin
when you are chilling outside?
Someone’s hip or knee accidentally
touches my shoulder.
The notion of social distance
is left in a locker. They want
to know what language it is.
No, it’s actually closer to Ukrainian.
I am taking in the steam, hoping
words like long-term planning
will melt away.
And I am walking back
as those hyggelig streets are
politely rejecting me.