‘MATINÉE’

Tetiana Yatsechko-Blazhenko is a Ukrainian writer, poet, and visual artist. Her work has appeared in literary journals and magazines including Midway Journal, Shot Glass Journal, Gabby & Min’s Literary Review, Eleventh Hour Literary, Corncrake Magazine, Sheepshead Review, Plants & Poetry Journal, Red Ogre Review, Hearts of Thunder. She has contributed to anthologies such as Tidings, The Haunted Words Press 2025 Anthology, The Echoes We Make, Rituals & Remedies, and In the Language of Flowers. In 2025, she won in the prose category of the Odesa Miniature contest.

MATINÉE

Venus burns in the Western sky. 

Maybe it’s because we change our safety 

phrases daily (yesterday was “Buzz Aldrin” 

today “govern me harder”) but seeing you 

is still like stepping out of a zombie matinée 

into the sparkling glaze of middle day.  

Like Sugar Mags into Fire.  Remember 

that Sunday we got super high and emailed 

Hüsker Dü’s publicist to tell her their umlauts 

were hanging out? We made the point

that even umlauts don’t have umlauts 

as we hooted and wolfed down girl scout 

thin mints. That was the summer 

our sociopathic neighbor put up windchimes. 

We agreed that nothing could show a greater 

lack of both spatial and aural awareness. 

Of course, we don’t agree on everything.  

We’ve had our fights – often around panic 

cleaning before guests arrive, but they are short.  

And someday even those will be precious polished 

rocks for one of us to carry.

Edward Johnson is a civil rights attorney who has spent the past 30 years representing people living on and over the edge of homelessness. One of his cases involving the fundamental rights of people forced to live outside, Johnson v. Grants Pass went to the Supreme Court of the United States in 2024. He is currently living in a cabin in the North Cascades working on poems, old and new. He has work recently out or forthcoming from Eclectica Magazine, Down in the Dirt, Beatnik Cowboy, Indefinite Space, Main Street Rag, Ginosko Literary Journal, Packingtown Review, cc&d , The Dissident Voice, Evergreen Review, Double Dutch and Whisk(ey) Tit.