Olga Mexina was a finalist in Narrative’s Sixteenth Annual Poetry Contest. A PhD candidate at Florida State University, she received an MFA from the University of Houston and a BA from New York University. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, she lives in Tallahassee, Florida.



Photo credit: Gleb Simonov.

Don’t Say War

by Olga Mexina


Requiem for Alexei Navalny

Because I have nothing else—
             words, colors,
                           this body,
because snow
             inside my head
                           is bitter and red,
scorching cold
             and each heart
                           echoes a warning—
we are a pipe organ
             in the open church
                           surgery,

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