Black Mariia
Running, running, running
Heart is beating, beating, beating
Ways are turning, turning, turning
Eyes are blinking-searching, blinking-searching, blinking-searching
Its eyes never blinked.

Dreaming


First, I was falling
Falling into the dark water, deep water
Into the cold hands of the black waves

I woke up in the cave.

Running


It was a cold place, a dark place
And that is how I started running, running, running
So fast, I missed the way out.


Hunting


So fast, I finally came back to the start
It was my place
I had woken up there
And it was its place
I could not run anymore
So I started speaking, speaking, speaking
Words running, running, running
It followed my words without blinking
It hunted them without moving
And then it crawled away

It was a snake.

Losing


It came back in my dream
It crawled close to me
It opened its mouth
It did not blink
And it did not have a tongue

I bit off mine.

Questioning


My body in dark stains
It looked like wine,it smelled like blood
Already dry
I lost my words
I ran, ran, ran
I came back to my place
Falling asleep
I thought about my tongue that I had not found

Did snake take it?

Speaking


It came back again, again
Wrapping itself around my neck
Cold and slippery
I was not sure if I was asleep or awake
If he wanted to hug or to choke

Back then, I did not know speaking was not about words.

Accepting


Having lost hope to find the way out
I stopped running
With no words to say
I started writing
Having lost my tongue
I used blood to tell my story

I wanted to run from the cave and I used its walls to tell my story.

Answering


I opened my eyes and saw it near the wall
Slowly, slowly, slowly
Eyes wide open, crawling through my story
Slowly, slowly, slowly
I sat down near the wall
Slowly, slowly, slowly
Dunking my finger into my blood
Slowly, slowly, slowly
Writing
Can I trust you?
Slowly, slowly, slowly
Snake crawled to me and placed its head under my hand
Slowly, slowly, slowly
I could choke or I could hug
Slowly, slowly, slowly
I fell asleep, surrendering to the

cold and slippery scales on my skin.

Drowning


I woke up in the water
Drops falling from the ceiling of the cave
Fast-loud, fast-loud
I saw the silhouette of Snake
Far-obscure, far-obscure
I tried to write on the wall
Drops were falling, falling
Words were drowning, drowning

I found myself running again.

From outside


To the warm and sunny outside world
Tears falling and falling
Blood stains on my body
Eyes searching and losing
My tongue in my mouth
Fingers searching and finding
From my mouth to my home
Words coming and coming
For the first time since I had lost my tongue in the cave
Ears listening to a song of

laughs and cries
greeting memories
farewell to the past

Back to the cave, back to the future
Legs already running.

Seeing darkness


Being born in darkness,
calmness became visible in the light
The words, spoken outside,
were no more needed in the cave
Accepting darkness,
my eyes were able to see

Bigger than before,
too big for the cave,
snake filled the whole space with its body
Unable to move,
it was never as restless as at that moment
Stuck between the walls,
its unblinking eyes told me
what it was not able to say

At first belonging to no one,
the cave had become my place
Belonging to me,
it had not become its.

After touching its scales,
some parts of it were left on my hand
Its old skin was no longer its,
yet it could not leave it behind
Awake, paralyzed,
it dreamt about home
Asleep in pieces of old and new,
I saw the river, its river, knowing that

in the morning we might be gone.

Seeing light


Crawling
as deep as the cave under the cave under the cave

Standing by the river
Facing our reflection in the water

Ripping our old skin
strong teeth can hurt
soft tongue can heal

Going underwater
Rubbing against the rocks

We thought

I believed I was a human, and you ought to prove me right

We thought

I believed you were a snake, I have always been afraid of snakes

We thought

We believed we were hunting each other

We felt

We were one


Naked, we went out of the water
In darkness we saw

Our old skin laying on the ground.

Made on
Tilda