Peycho Kanev is the author of 4 poetry collections and two chapbooks, published in USA and Bulgaria. He has won several European awards for his poetry and he’s nominated for the Pushcart Award and Best of the Net. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Hawaii Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, Two Thirds North, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others.
Against
We mourn our dead with sadness and remember
them with unconditional
love.
This termination of all biological functions
that sustain a living organism is beyond us.
This phenomenon stretching throughout
our lives…
The being that has died… Saudade…
But
the warm wind is blowing gently
against the trees and their branches
applaud.
And the snowman is melting with no remorse
for the outgoing winter.
An Odd Occurrence
From the viewpoint of the worm
the huge roots of the trees resemble
the rib cages of his prison but the sun
is hiding behind the fluffy clouds
as I walk through the park like some
cheerful tourist, watching the hushed
birds on the branches devoid of leaves,
because the winter soon will be upon us,
and then, exactly at this moment,
I hear the voice of my mother, calling
me for supper, clear and vibrant voice
across all this greenery – I froze,
like a big chunk of ice, mind you the enormous sun
was still hot, and I went in the direction of the voice,
without looking at anything else, without
listening to anything else, just like a blind
mole above the ground I continued –
and I’m still digging.
Calculations
Four out of five people want me dead,
it is true, I checked –
even the people in this room are
looking at me with hungry eyes;
Why? I don’t know.
Let astrophysicists reflect
on the mysteries of the infinite
universe
I move on…
I don’t want to wake up one day
only to find Death sitting on
the death side of my sickbed
taking my measurements
with four people behind his
back.
~Peycho Kanev