"Amoria" by Milena Makani
Rebecca Hart Olander | Winter Trees
Thirty years since Jerica and I earned Monadnock’s rocky summit,
popping blueberries into our mouths, sprawled in a dirty pile
of newfound friends after a precollege trip. We were close
to virginal, hung movie-star posters, had some guy named Ted
pierce the cartilage of our upper ears with ice and a needle
in the dormitory lounge. We braced for pain, for beauty’s sake,
playing at being grown. Today, I can’t stop the car halfway across
the French King Bridge to contemplate the trees blooming
with snow, gaze over the guardrail at the widening river,
try to understand that she will die. I’m driving toward her
to watch her son while she gets her infusions. While she’s gone,
he sticks pretend Band-Aids on toy trains when they try to fly
but crash against the couch. There’s an imaginary porch
I’ll never sit on across from her, old and sipping wine,
toasting to the long ribbon of our past unspooling
behind us like a river, alive as winter trees.
popping blueberries into our mouths, sprawled in a dirty pile
of newfound friends after a precollege trip. We were close
to virginal, hung movie-star posters, had some guy named Ted
pierce the cartilage of our upper ears with ice and a needle
in the dormitory lounge. We braced for pain, for beauty’s sake,
playing at being grown. Today, I can’t stop the car halfway across
the French King Bridge to contemplate the trees blooming
with snow, gaze over the guardrail at the widening river,
try to understand that she will die. I’m driving toward her
to watch her son while she gets her infusions. While she’s gone,
he sticks pretend Band-Aids on toy trains when they try to fly
but crash against the couch. There’s an imaginary porch
I’ll never sit on across from her, old and sipping wine,
toasting to the long ribbon of our past unspooling
behind us like a river, alive as winter trees.
Rebecca Hart Olander’s poetry and collaborative visual and written work appears widely in print and online. Her books include Dressing the Wounds (dgp, 2019), Uncertain Acrobats (CavanKerry, 2021), and Singing from the Deep End (CavanKerry, 2026). Rebecca teaches poetry at colleges and community programs and is publisher at Perugia Press.
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.
