The Penelope Review

Oily window, 
whistling steel, 
pages ditto 
on the knit-knot twill, 
a sip of tea 
between two countries, 
and forty years 
of this free will ─ 
flaked camellia 
with a pour of milk, 
that phone call peeled you, 
earth’s end dwelt, 
          in one language I drink, swallow in another, 
          exerted this love, from cover to cover.

Yelena Moskovich is a Ukrainian-born American and French author of four novels, Nadezhda in the Dark, A Door Behind A Door, Virtuoso, and The Natashas.