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14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three Nov-Dec 2023.
The Light in You, poems by Irina Frolova.
The Light in You
for Michael
this burnt honey
this warm amber
flecked with green
has me lost
in the soft folds
of an afternoon
I amble
in autumnal woods
where a wide sunbeam
shines
through the canopy
I savour it
trace it
to the heavens
I never knew
love could be this
full this
light
soul-mating
each day we eat dark chocolates
send each other quotes about love
you share the latest quote and say
that we are two halves of one soul
I sip my earl grey ‘love’ your comment
and silently disagree
I wonder if that’s what you really think
will make me smile
if I’m being honest
it does
I bite into my chocolate the swirl
of sweetness & bitterness
I am tempted
to separate the ingredients
kind chaotic
particular passionate
tender temperamental
romantic resilient
intelligent idealistic
impossible
to split these neatly in halves
each soul more or less im/perfect
& whole
in the dead of night we twist
around each other like snakes
legs intertwined
your long fingers in mine
one more kiss bitter-sweet before sleep
I think
if I have to relinquish this waking moment
to the uncertainty of another
may it be my love
& my friend by your side
© Irina Frolova
Irina Frolova is a Russian-Australian writer. She has a degree in philology from Moscow City Pedagogical University and is studying psychology at Deakin University. Her work speaks to the experience of immigration, neurodivergence, and a search for belonging. It draws on folklore and explores archetypes through cultural and feminist lenses. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Not Very Quiet, Australian Poetry Collaboration, Baby Teeth Journal, Rochford Street Review, The Blue Nib, The Australian Multilingual Writing Project, Live Encounters, Mascara Literary Review, Kalliope X, Burrow, and various anthologies. Irina’s creative highlights include her first collection of poetry Far and Wild (released byFlying Island Books in 2021), winning the second prize in the 2021 Deborah Cass Prize for writing, and being shortlisted for the 2022 Alice Sinclair Writing Competition.