r/OCPoetry•5 mo. ago

Letters from Kolyma

Feedback Please

Falling snow coats yesterday’s progress

As your confectioners sugar once did to a baking dish

Ghost letters collect upon my abandoned stationary

Bittersweet impressions culminate our absence

I struggle to write anything worth remembering

My rational mind’s been reduced to a crumb

From a bread lacking the flavor of our salon

We so lovingly built together

A legacy spanning lath and plaster

Frozen in time as I am in Kolyma

Where I commute each sentence between labor and rest

I hope you do too while you convalesce in Kaliningrad

Please continue writing of the past

For my sun has set before you

Your letters absorb piquant aromas of damask

Complimenting my ambient odor of musk

From filtering among heaps of spoil

Earning my quota of golden billet

Preferable to earning a lead bullet

May my efforts be rewarded in plentiful coal

Saving my tender fingers from the frostbiting cold

Preserving my ability to write you letters

For I refuse to burn yours as tinder

They make better insulation for my winter jacket

Where I keep them in a special compartment

Warming my heart’s resolve

For I promise I will see you again

Whether it be at the gate to our garden

Or in heaven

Commentary:

Posted May 2, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC