In Soviet Russia, as an 11 year old, most of my weekday afternoons were spent outside, roaming the streets, hanging out with friends, causing trouble, building things, breaking things, blowing things up, the usual. Homework was left to late evenings, which reflected in my only slightly better than average grades.

Sometimes if we needed money, we'd ask kiosk owners if they wanted us to take out their rubbish for a few rubles, or help unload trucks. I was used to not having money and was rarely in a position to afford anything more than an occasional ice cream anyway, plus we were usually too busy playing around constructions zones or something similarly dangerous anyway.

One afternoon we found a pile of wet cement; someone must've cleaned their cement mixer and dumped the leftovers under my friend's window. If it was smoothed and serving a purpose, we generally would leave it alone, as troublesome as we were, we generally respected other people and property, but this was just a pile of…

A few years ago, quite a few now, I remember my mum telling me about getting answers from the ocean.
She used to go to the beach, swim out and stay out there for up to an hour, then she'd get back and sometimes tell me about her revelations/answers to her questions/what not.

I was pure logic back then, so I didn't take much notice and just heard it as "I thought about it and here's my view/conclusion".

Not so many years ago, I was in one of my getting fit…

Click, click
The heels of ruby roots kiss
twice, though the adage rings true
Mother Earth sits in her kitchen, wears an apron,
stirring wanderlust with spoons

Turn me a deer
Fill me aloft
Set me to running
Friend me a forest and
Paint me true.

Incantations, rust
Feet calloused to hooves
Savaged and unsalvageable
a permanent shift and
Brand new shoes.

She stamped me clean; silent
Oaths climbing caves (…