Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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July/Aug 2017 |

Untitled

Translated from Russian by J. Kates

veins of time
in blood clots of empty dreams
pale blue nodules
under skin on the arms
i find in a moment
turning halflives into a night game
following a pathfinder
a beanbag—quiet as a mouse
smarter than smart
God forgive me
pale blue veins
force interlaced
fingers to pull the trigger
a stupid dream
the discolored indian scalp
passed off as a wig
a red heart
sent out pale blue roots into the hands
spreading out like a helpless
tongue

Aigerim Tazhi (Әйгерім Тәжі) was born in the western Kazakhstani city of Aktobe (formerly called Aktyubinsk) in 1981. She is a graduate of the Aktyubinsk (Zhubanov) State University. Her only book of poetry, БОГ-О-СЛОВ was published in 2003. She has received numerous literary prizes in Kazakhstan and Russia for poems in the collection and in 2011 she was a finalist for the Russian Debut Prize in poetry. She lives in Almaty, Kazakhstan.   

J. Kates is a poet and a literary translator who lives in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire.