"Haiku for Ukraine" & "Akika (Pangolin)" by Ilona Martonfi

Haiku for Ukraine

there in Bucha

in the garden of a house

yellow tulips

this morning

Chernobyl reed marshes

a war zone

three persimmons

and paper wasp nest

above a hedge

clutched

at a borrowed casket

the Full Crow Moon

O, Kyiv hills and fields

spring planting sunflower seeds

cry, nightingale

Akika (Pangolin)

After I hunted bushmeat; after I used the money

to buy milk; after I was told these pangolins are on

the brink of extinction; after I laughed and said,

that’s impossible, after all these animals are put

in a forest by our Yoruba gods; after I saw the

elder’s wisdom: the akika, a gentle, bumbling ant-

eating creature; a prehistoric, animated pine cone;

after I sold its scales and claws on the Durban

Muthi Market for medicine: after I said, a remedy

to cure everything: after all that, I would write a

verse, take the pangolin back into the wild. And

you’d ask: Why do you write about the pangolin

looking like a ghost, its red, beady eyes?

Ilona Martonfi is a Montreal poet born in Budapest. She is a writer, editor, creative writing teacher, and founder of the writing group, Rue Towers Writers. She is the author of five poetry books, as well as seven chapbooks. Ilona is Founder and Literary Curator of The Yellow Door and Visual Arts Centre Reading Series and Argo Bookshop’s Reading Series. She is a recipient of the QWF 2010 Community Award. Ilona has published            extensively in print and online literary publications.