“Pink” © Mykyta Ryzhykh

 

The March Goes On

How could you say for the music I’ll stay but the politics bring shame, why march to the beat when you can party in the street? Yes i am gay, but why must the march stay?

In our lives we hide, cloaked under a hetero guise whilst others fantasise our demise. Poof, faggot, dyke, tranny, freak. These are the words that they speak. Still you have a problem with our feet on the streets.

Seventy three, thats how many places it’s illegal to be me. Sixty eight, that’s how many will kill you for who you date. Fifty six countries in the common wealth, thirty five of those will put you in jail still your face does not pale. No matter what way you frame it. That march, we will take it

Our brothers and sisters bloodied in the streets
Unable to stand upon their feet. For this reason we stand, strong, hand in hand
And yet you ask will this march have an end

The judgment, the shame, the violence, the games. Still we stand in the pain, stare them staight in the
face and say no, this march will never end

 

Lyndsay Krelle (she/her): “Poetry is barely a month old in my life and they just haven’t stopped flowing since! Everything that’s made its way onto a page has come from the deepest, most powerful emotions from my personal experiences with my friends and family.”

Mykyta Ryzhykh is a winner of the international competition Art Against Drugs», a bronze medalist in the festival Chestnut House, and laureate of the literary competition named after Tyutyunnik. Mykyta has also received a long list of awards from venues such as Lyceum, Twelve, as well as awards named after Dragomoshchenko. Mykyta Ryzhykh has published in the journals Dzvin, Ring A, Polutona, Rechport, Topos, Articulation, Formaslov, Colon, Literature Factory, Literary Chernihiv, in the portals Literary Center and Soloneba, in the Ukrainian literary newspaper, and the almanac Syaivo.