February 15, 2026
Alina Kalontarov
.avif)
Alina Kalontarov is an educator, poet, and amateur photographer based in New York City. She collaborates on the editorial teams of various publications and serves as a reader for Gather literary magazine. She is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee with work that can be found in Sky Island Journal, Gather, Wildscape, Thimble, Sand Hills and elsewhere.
She opens her sovereign heart
to the machete of the world
closes her eyes
already somewhere else
bending a field of wheat
to the wind
While the world asks for the facts of you, a poem insists on the truth of you. It grants permission for that truth to be a question, a contradiction, a duality, an ambiguity, a horror.