Chernobyl Exclusion ZoneIOnce upon a time a captive Cossack spied a Tatar sorcerer eating snake partook of the flesh awoke to the language of plantsa herb proclaimingI am for the black sicknessbut the vermifugal power of bitter plants couldn’t purge Chernobyl’s evil spiritsradioactive plague felled villagesforestsa thriving cityThe Exclusion Zone harbours ruinsa power plant sarcophagus wild animals and forbidden fruit warns visitors not to consume food in the open airIIчорнобиль is Ukrainian black grassArtemisia vulgarismugwortcousin to wormwooda biblical symbol of bitternesssorrow and calamityChernobylIIIMonument of the Third Angel tribute to the fallen ChernobylSculpture by Ukrainian artist Anatoly Haidamaka. Photo by Serie Barford, May 2019, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine.And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burningas it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon thefountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and thethird part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.Revelation 8:10-11IVBeguiling dogs grin at Russian soldiersdescendants of radioactive survivorswolves hound these feral mutts through winterI ache to scrunch their droopy Yoda earsplough fingers through mottled fur check dosimeter tags for chemical exposureI’ve also ingested hazardous falloutradioactive isotopes illuminated my armpitrevealed biological bombs on short fuseslymph nodes dancing a cancerous fandango Don’t touch the dogs the guide warnsLunch is at the canteenFollow meWe pass through radiation detectorsqueue with maintenance workers for fodderwhen you’re flying home to chemo and radiotherapypatting a stray dog at Chernobyl is perversely desirablea quick comfort fixsensibly deniedlife is preciousprecariouson both sides of the equatorVI dreamt of falling angels bypassing asteroidspetulant deitiesthe whipping tails of cometstangled feathers trailed like cornsilk sailsquills slipped through window casementspierced black holes my eyesdislodged chemo-laced lashestiny black sicklesrained on my pillow smudged the sunSerie Barford was born in Aotearoa to a migrant German-Samoan mother from Lotofaga and a Palagi father. In 2018 she was the recipient of a Pasifika residency at the Michael King Writers Centre. In 2019 Serie performed and promoted her collections 'Tapa Talk' (Huia) and 'Entangled Islands' (Anahera) at an international book festival in Kiev, Ukraine. The Ukrainian version of TapaTalk (Krok) was launched at the festival. Her latest poetry collection, 'Sleeping With Stones', will be published by Anahera Press. Serie is currently writing about The Casualisation of Toto\Blood in the Western Medical System.
