Author: Daniela Dragomir

  • The Unraveling

    1. Unraveling

    “I want to break up,”
    he said, calm,
    in the park, by the lake.

    Meanwhile, in my mind, a bomb went off.
    There was fire everywhere.
    Every one of my memories
    was vibrating, shaking…
    fleeing into the flames.

    “It’s boring for me.

    I don’t know why I ever thought

    it would work between us.”

    he said,

    checking the time.

    A meteorite strikes inside my head,
    from somewhere above,
    from among the stars.
    It lands in my world
    and creates an immense tsunami.

    It’s a warning.
    If I don’t control myself,
    it will wash me away.
    I’ll lose my mind,
    lose my control.

    I try to run,
    I try to hide…
    But I can’t escape it.

    The bombing continues.
    My memories scatter in panic.

    What is right? What is wrong?
    What is left?
    What is right?

    The grayness spreads
    through the entire world inside me.

    1. Collapse 

    On the outside, he sees
    a humble woman looking back at him
    from beneath her gorgeous lashes,
    in a beautiful red dress,
    smiling.

    “Sounds good.” I say.
    “Nice.” he replies,
    standing up, dusting off his pants.

    He leaves.

    I stay a while.

    A tsunami tears through my world,
    clearing everything in its path:
    memories, stale smells,
    false smiles, lost time,
    and finally, me.

    1. Phoenix

    I am reborn,
    right here, by the lake.

    The ashes will stay for a while.
    I’ll rebuild.

    And it will take
    a long, long time
    to forget, to forgive…

    Step by step,
    brick by brick,
    memory by memory,
    I will reconstruct myself.

    My world will be beautiful again.
    It will be green.
    It will be colored.

    Full of red roses and purple lilacs,
    of smiles and laughter,
    of me,
    and a future you.

    Someone who waters the plants
    and kisses the pain away.

    But today,
    the grayness stays.

    I’ll learn from it.
    And cry…
    when no one’s watching.

    Poems submitted to the International Competition: Concurs Internațional de Creație Literară, Ed. a VI-a, Festival of Arts, June 2025

  • Coffee

    The juice of life.

    The elixir of energy.

    The power of the impossible…

    All inside a roasted brown bean.

    When was the last time

    you met yourself

    without it?

    Do you know YOU anymore?

    Who are you?

    This green seed controls my life.

    Is it worth it?

    Who could I have been

    without it…