UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology APRIL 2023 - Flipbook - Page 20
Deafness, an Insurgency, Begins
-for Boris and Ludmila Khersonsky
Our country woke up next morning and refused to hear solidiers.
In the name of Petya, we refuse.
At six a.m., when soliders compliment girls in the alleyway, the girls slide by,
pointing to their ears. At eight, the bakery door is shut in solider Ivanoff’s face,
though he’s their best customer. At ten, Momma Galya chalks NO ONE HEARS YOU on
the gates of the soldier’s barracks.
By eleven a.m., arrests begin.
Out hearing doesn’t weaken, but something silent in us strengthens.
After curfew, families of the arrested hang homemade puppets out of their
windows. The streets empty but for the squeaks of strings and the tap tap, against
the buildings, of wooden fists and feet.
In the ears of the town, snow falls.
-Ilya Kaminsky
Ilya Kaminsky
Deaf Republic, Graywolf Press, 2019
Originally published in Ploughshares, Spring 2017
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