Better

                for Toni

The time I left
my best friend behind

was a time of hope
for something better

than a best friend,

was a time of hope
for true love,

was a time of hope
for a better life, better

than a best friend,
better than her

true love, better

than a life
with my best friend, better

than holding hands
on busted streets, better

than sharing
the cheapest ice cream, better

than her lithe body spooning mine
in the hotel room by the U.S. consulate, better

than our unconditional love
unless I find

something better.

The time I left
my best friend behind,

there were parts of me
I left her. I left her.

 

from: Katerina Stoykova: The Porcupine of Mind (Broadstone Books 2012)

The author writes in English and Bulgarian. The Porcupine of Mind contains poems written in English.

Katerina Stoykova is the author of poetry books in English and Bulgarian, most recently Second Skin (ICU, 2018, Bulgarian) and the bilingual Bird on a Window Sill (Signs, 2017, English and Bulgarian). The Bulgarian edition of How God Punishes was published by ICU in 2014 and won the Ivan Nikolov National Poetry Prize. Katerina is the editor and the main translator of The Season of Delicate Hunger: Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry (Accents Publishing, 2014). For six years she hosted the literary radio show Accents on WRFL 88.1FM. In 2010, Katerina launched the independent literary press Accents Publishing. Katerina co-wrote the independent feature film Proud Citizen, directed by Thom Southerland, and acted in the lead role.

Photo credit: Katerina Stoykova

This blog post is part of #BulgarianLiteratureMonth.