Victor Solodchuk is a Ukrainian poet, writer, screenwriter and translator, born in 1971 in Odessa. He is author of poems, stories, and a sci-fi novel «Совпалыч», which was included in the short list of “Russkaya Premia”. He collaborated on the documentary “Native Ashes” with Alisa Pavlovska in 2021.
A bird flies home, because it feels like a need without feeling tired, across the open sky. And on earth hopes get mixed with curses. The bird flies over Kyiv, it flies over Kherson. A lark, a stork, an oriole, a linnet. A bird flying from afar does not expect treachery. And on the earth down there— reactive volleys and threads of tracers. The bird flies over Rivno, flies over Cherkasy. Where it is going to land in that vortex—God knows. Souls circulate in a vortex, birds fly home. March 1, 2022