Hannah Kludy – love letter to pripyat

you might be the only thing dead
i still love or even think of
you       haunted museum of radiation
when your children left
you were immortalized
in the cold and i want to feel            walk
through you        your dilapidated streets
sleep at your cold breast
never used ferris wheel
virginal idol to lost wolves
if you still sleep alone at night i want to come
to you           count the dinner plates laid
on tables dust the magazines          i want
to smoke your cigarettes         wash
your ash trays before filling my lungs
with your beautiful finality            hear
the strays howl           see the ferris wheel
carts sway in the breeze           taste the milk
of your chernobyl your tumor your savior i want
you to feel life being lived inside you
one last time

Hannah Kludy has been published in magazines such as Neuro Logical Literary Magazine, Sledgehammer Lit, and Variety Pack. She lives in Kansas City and spends her time irritating her husband and giving her dogs cream cheese.