Author: Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
Katerina Stoykova-Klemer was born and raised in Bulgaria, where, until recently, military service was mandatory for all males. She emigrated to the United States and currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky. She is a student in Spalding University’s brief-residency M. F. A. program for writing. She writes poetry and prose in English as well as Bulgarian, and her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers in the United States and Bulgaria.
A Dream
At my feet—a stack of fish scales. One by one I pick them up and glue them to my body. I resemble a half-done 3-D puzzle of a fish. I think I may be a trout. Why, in the world, are you doing that? A passerby cries. I open and close, open and close, open …
My Boyfriend Reports
His mother, his father His sister, and I Took him to the garrison His head was shaved His face was pale His heart was fast Men with epaulets Took all the boys away And said if we waited a bit We would see them again In their uniforms I waited, standing by the door Then …