From the pages of Ilya Kaminsky's "Deaf Republic"

I page through "Deaf Republic" (2019) by Ilya Kaminsky, who was born in Odessa in 1977 and moved to the United States in 1993, and I find "the nakedness / of a whole nation" ("As Soldiers March, Alfonso Covers the Boy's Face with a Newspaper"). I find "4 a.m. Bombardment": "It has begun: I see the blue canary of my country / pick breadcrumbs from each citizen's eyes / pick breadcrumbs from my neighbor's hair". And "Question": "What is a child? / A quiet between two bombardments." And "Question": "What is a man? / A quiet between two bombardments." And "Question": "What is a woman? / A quiet between two bombardments." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 24 February 2022)