[08/03/2026]

[POETRY]

THINGS LOOK A BIT STRANGE

Three Poems by Kathleen Hellen

i-novel w/st. sebastian

“My blood soared up; my loins swelled … cloudy-white splashes about…”

—Confessions of a Mask, Yukio Mishima

save him. she said/ that day your hands not bound/ gave over to the motion
never taught/ the day your brother/ showing off/ arm-wrestled at the table
with your father.

you must have felt the arrows plunge/ the loincloth loosely
knotted/ the cover-up/ the nearly naked saint watching over. waiting

while she waited til you slept/ burned them/ the plush
animals you loved.

you kissed them on the mouth/ whispered to them on the yellow
bus/ you can’t forgive her.

she nails that photo of you to the wall. so pious.

boarding that plane back to moscow

“If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them…”

—Navalny

things look a bit strange, don’t you agree? bans, black lists.
how was i to know i’d be covering up tracks?
pissing in front of surveillance cameras?
i hear him laughing: being “problematic.”
i hear him asking: “STOP THE WAR.”
“DON’T BELIEVE THE PROPAGANDA.”
he said for a second he didn’t regret it
he said even a “like” can take courage.
is he waiting for me? the new proletariat.
boarding that plane. arrested for laughing.
shoot. just kill me.

NOTE: Lines in italics are echoes from Navalny Prison Diaries, written in the “special regime” colony known as Polar Wolf, north of the Arctic Circle, and the 2022 CNN documentary Navalny.

TRAINS

Jump, her sister said. She was afraid
to look both ways. How far would trestled tracks
take her from the junkyard closing in? Who would even
miss her? Her mother forgot:
sandwiches for lunch. Milk money.
She pictured herself on the carton.
Her father said she had an old maid’s face.

Headlights painted stripes. Crickets all night bickering.

KATHLEEN HELLEN is the author of three collections and two poetry chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in Action, Spectacle, DIAGRAM, Drunken Boat, La Piccioletta Barca, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. Hellen’s work has been nominated multiple times for Best of the Net, the Pushcart, and recently, Best American Short Stories.