Poem by Roy Blokker

Scent in the Air
A response to the crisis in the Ukraine

The scent is rising, old world stench
Found in books, nestled in my nostrils,
Not the dusky smell of age, something else,
Something unwelcome, something buried
Like a vampire waiting, kicking at the dirt.
It hangs like smoke among the trees,
It calls out silently in its secret codes.
You have murdered me, the echoes say,
The watchers frozen at their posts,
And winter is coming to take us all.

It begins like a fever, low grade, building,
Like a fire long ago put out and left for dead.
The fire smolders, dark against light,
Cold embers raising smoke to obscure
The sun, to blot it out from memory.
And on its bones a small vial simmers,
Cooking Man’s perfume, drawing fragrances:
Fear, sweat, copper, blood, cordite and oil.
You have murdered me, the poets say,
Once and once again awakened.

And if the comets come, we will not notice;
If the dinosaurs return, we will not see;
And if the soldiers march onward, renewed,
The old men say, you have murdered me.

Roy Blokker is a poet, novelist, historian and biographer. He was born in the Netherlands. His parents immigrated when he was two years old, giving him ties to both the Old World and the New. After a career in the United States Postal Service, Roy moved to Northwest Montana with his wife of forty years, Diane, where he at last is concentrating on his craft. He is author of The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich: The Symphonies (with Robert Dearling), the novel Amber Waves, and five volumes of poetry: Saving Ronald Reagan, Banned in Boston, Thinking About Asphalt, Poems, Prayers, Promises and Procrastinations, and Charles Sorley’s Ghost. His work has appeared in magazines ranging from Highlights for Children to Clever. He considers himself first and foremost a poet and a storyteller.

Allison Goldin is an artist living in Cambridge. Her work is a collection of spontaneous drawings from the imagination. The most common link throughout her art are the semi-recognizable creatures scattered amongst and bringing together the surrounding doodles. She is currently studying Illustration at The School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.