![](/tp.gif)
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
![](/tp.gif)
I
![](/tp.gif)
Once upon a time a captive Cossack
![](/tp.gif)
spied a Tatar sorcerer eating snake
![](/tp.gif)
partook of the flesh
![](/tp.gif)
awoke to the language of plants
![](/tp.gif)
a herb proclaiming
![](/tp.gif)
I am for the black sickness
![](/tp.gif)
but the vermifugal power of bitter plants
![](/tp.gif)
couldn’t purge Chernobyl’s evil spirits
![](/tp.gif)
radioactive plague felled
![](/tp.gif)
villages
![](/tp.gif)
forests
![](/tp.gif)
a thriving city
![](/tp.gif)
The Exclusion Zone harbours ruins
![](/tp.gif)
a power plant sarcophagus
![](/tp.gif)
wild animals and forbidden fruit
![](/tp.gif)
warns visitors not to consume food in the open air
![](/tp.gif)
II
![](/tp.gif)
чорнобиль is Ukrainian black grass
![](/tp.gif)
Artemisia vulgaris
![](/tp.gif)
mugwort
![](/tp.gif)
cousin to wormwood
![](/tp.gif)
a biblical symbol of bitterness
![](/tp.gif)
sorrow and calamity
![](/tp.gif)
Chernobyl
![](/tp.gif)
III
![](/tp.gif)
Monument of the Third Angel
![](/tp.gif)
tribute to the fallen
![](/tp.gif)
Chernobyl
![](/tp.gif)
Sculpture by Ukrainian artist Anatoly Haidamaka. Photo by Serie Barford, ![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
May 2019, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine.
![](/tp.gif)
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning
![](/tp.gif)
as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the
![](/tp.gif)
fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the
![](/tp.gif)
third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the ![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
![](/tp.gif)
waters, because they were made bitter.
![](/tp.gif)
Revelation 8:10-11
![](/tp.gif)
IV
![](/tp.gif)
Beguiling dogs grin at Russian soldiers
![](/tp.gif)
descendants of radioactive survivors
![](/tp.gif)
wolves hound these feral mutts through winter
![](/tp.gif)
I ache to scrunch their droopy Yoda ears
![](/tp.gif)
plough fingers through mottled fur
![](/tp.gif)
check dosimeter tags for chemical exposure
![](/tp.gif)
I’ve also ingested hazardous fallout
![](/tp.gif)
radioactive isotopes illuminated my armpit
![](/tp.gif)
revealed biological bombs on short fuses
![](/tp.gif)
lymph nodes dancing a cancerous fandango
![](/tp.gif)
Don’t touch the dogs the guide warns
![](/tp.gif)
Lunch is at the canteen
![](/tp.gif)
Follow me
![](/tp.gif)
We pass through radiation detectors
![](/tp.gif)
queue with maintenance workers for fodder
![](/tp.gif)
when you’re flying home to chemo and radiotherapy
![](/tp.gif)
patting a stray dog at Chernobyl
![](/tp.gif)
is perversely desirable
![](/tp.gif)
a quick comfort fix
![](/tp.gif)
sensibly denied
![](/tp.gif)
life is precious
![](/tp.gif)
precarious
![](/tp.gif)
on both sides of the equator
![](/tp.gif)
V
![](/tp.gif)
I dreamt of falling angels bypassing asteroids
![](/tp.gif)
petulant deities
![](/tp.gif)
the whipping tails of comets
![](/tp.gif)
tangled feathers trailed like cornsilk sails
![](/tp.gif)
quills slipped through window casements
![](/tp.gif)
pierced black holes
![](/tp.gif)
my eyes
![](/tp.gif)
dislodged chemo-laced lashes
![](/tp.gif)
tiny black sickles
![](/tp.gif)
rained on my pillow
![](/tp.gif)
smudged the sun
Serie Barford was born in Aotearoa to a migrant German-Samoan mother from Lotofaga and a Palagi father. In 2018 she was the recipient of a Pasifika residency at the Michael King Writers Centre. In 2019 Serie performed and promoted her collections 'Tapa Talk' (Huia) and 'Entangled Islands' (Anahera) at an international book festival in Kiev, Ukraine. The Ukrainian version of TapaTalk (Krok) was launched at the festival. Her latest poetry collection, 'Sleeping With Stones', will be published by Anahera Press. Serie is currently writing about The Casualisation of Toto\Blood in the Western Medical System.