Nicole Yurcaba

A Black-and-White Scene

It is raining & the camera pans to a darkened
European street. You’re walking toward
a street light, missing a puddle by only inches.
Your black knee-length coat is espionage.
Your British-cut suit carries secrets. Sleep
deprivation lingers, preorbital & manic. 
Think the priest in The Exorcist

        Jeremy Irons, Kafka
         Richard Burton, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
 
I’m in the doorway of a seedy Ratskellar,
the stench of Gauloises hanging on my dress,
cheap cognac wrought onto my tongue,
the ache of another man’s rejection 
fresh on my cheek, crimson & slow to dissipate. 
Think Lauren Bacall, Young Man with a Horn
          Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct
          Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction.
 
You’re muttering to yourself, something 
about the sniper hidden in the clocktower
aiming for your head. You glance in my direction,
nod, your fingers working in & out & in & out 
from your palm. I yell Will you want me forever,
soul of mine? in Polish. You stop where street 
meets bridge, the echo of your steps ceasing, 
& turn, the slow rain of scenes yet to be written
creeping into the script. 

Nicole Yurcaba (Нікола Юрцаба) is a Ukrainian American of Hutsul/Lemko origin. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Atlanta Review, Seneca Review, New Eastern Europe, and Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press, Lit Gazeta, Chytomo, Bukvoid, and The New Voice of Ukraine. Nicole holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, teaches poetry workshops for Southern New Hampshire University, and is the Humanities Coordinator at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College. She also serves as a guest book reviewer for Sage Cigarettes, Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, and Southern Review of Books.