"Vahari" by Milena Makani
Al Ortolani | Bear Sighting in Leawood
A bear emerged from the woods south of the city.
He or she, who knows which, has been sighted
in ring cams, on social media posts, lumbering
without, it seems, concern for time and place.
We leave our driveways each morning, phones ready
for a photograph, to be one of the few
to have seen the bear appearing from the woods,
batting hummingbird feeders, scooting dog bowls
across patios. We are closer to each other this morning,
waving over our steering wheels. There’s a bear
in the suburbs, as cumbersome and heavy as humidity,
opening the wildness beyond the golf course,
lapping the sprinkler system’s spring.
Today’s sighting is the most we know of anything.
He or she, who knows which, has been sighted
in ring cams, on social media posts, lumbering
without, it seems, concern for time and place.
We leave our driveways each morning, phones ready
for a photograph, to be one of the few
to have seen the bear appearing from the woods,
batting hummingbird feeders, scooting dog bowls
across patios. We are closer to each other this morning,
waving over our steering wheels. There’s a bear
in the suburbs, as cumbersome and heavy as humidity,
opening the wildness beyond the golf course,
lapping the sprinkler system’s spring.
Today’s sighting is the most we know of anything.
Al Ortolani, a winner of the Rattle Chapbook Prize, has been featured in Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry, and George Bilgere’s Poetry Town. He was the recipient of the Bill Hickok Humor Award from I-70 Review. Currently, he’s a contributing editor to the Chiron Review.
Milena Makani, born in 1984 in Sofia, Bulgaria, is a German contemporary artist based in London, UK. Makani’s deeply psychological paintings depict inner landscapes characterized by layered textures, fluid forms and gradients. Employing acrylics, watercolours and inks on mineral stone sheets, she blends control and spontaneity through the interplay of organic process and manipulation. Makani lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - a source of constant pain. Her works channel the mindfulness, gratitude and energy of her lived experience, as she investigates themes of resilience, serenity, joy, stoicism and fragility.
The German artist has exhibited her work in the UK, Bulgaria and Iceland and her paintings are featured internationally in various private collections.
The German artist has exhibited her work in the UK, Bulgaria and Iceland and her paintings are featured internationally in various private collections.
