A Functional Family
The false narrative of my ancestry
speaks to me in a language I know too well
as I wake up into a nightmare
but it’s me who devours Saturn.
My skin sheds into dust
but it’s our bones that take me back to Tartaros,
where the water is black and my face is yours.
The sunrise here lasts for a second,
it swallows my embrace and I recognize
this is what mother always called home.
Evgeniya Dineva is a poet from Bulgaria. Her works appear in The Hong Kong
Review, Ethel, Asian Cha, and others. She is currently working on her debut
poetry collection Animals Have No Fathers, forthcoming, in October 2023.
Evgeniya reads poetry for Autumn House Press and is a fellow of the
Elizabeth Kostova Foundation for Creative Writing.