The Limits of Resilience
What can be said
of the frailty
of the human condition
except that even oak trees
break in half
given enough snow
that whole limbs
can be torn
from pine trees
by one thousand
butterflies roosting
at once
that the taller we grow,
the more easily
a strong wind can fell us
that most things
are designed
to bear only
one burden
at a time
and that,
as always,
time has
everything
to do with it.
Svetlana Litvinchuk
Svetlana Litvinchuk holds degrees from
University of New Mexico. She is the author of a debut poetry chapbook, Only a
Season (Bottlecap Features, 2024). Her work has been nominated for Best of the
Net and has appeared in Apple Valley Review, Sky Island Journal, Plant-Human
Quarterly, ONE ART, and elsewhere. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, she now lives
with her husband and daughter in Cape Girardeau, MO. She is a reviews editor
with ONLY POEMS.