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        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
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      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
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      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
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      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
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      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
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      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
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      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
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      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions

​You're People. I’m Not  by Maria Malinovskaya 

 
Based on the private conversations with a career criminal and headlines at the time
 
 
✉
Shall I write here?


✉
I'm cooking dinner. Later. 
 
But in the meantime - I served in Afghanistan in the KGB troops, then I was a bandit, was imprisoned for robbery for 9 years. After that I don’t fucking care.
 
Is it clear?


✉
But what should I’ve done? Join the cops?
My childhood friend is a bodyguard. I tell him: are you stupid? Taking bullets for someone else's body.
Smart, huh? 
 
I'm more serious than you think. I don't care about you if you don’t care about me. You asked for help. I'm ready. But this is my time.
 
 
✉
I became a bandit because I had always wanted to be one and actually always was. Literally and figuratively. You won't understand. It’ll take too long to explain.
 
 
✉
I was chased by three police squads when I was on the run. I didn't know then that my former fellow soldiers had worked there all their lives. Now I know. 
 
So now you tell yourself who you are. I know who I am. 




🔍   a schoolteacher became a bandit to
        be the center of attention a child became a bandit
        at birth one might say by the calling
        a Prosecutor became a bandit
        a rector of a private University became a bandit of course you’d want to know how he killed
        a high-ranking security officer became a bandit after breaking up with a girl
        what did he decide to take revenge for?
        a mouse became a bandit / Tom and Jerry in Minecraft /
        and that saved him
🔍
        Sergei also became a bandit
        because of poverty
        because of his father's tyranny
        because of his nationality
        because of the Soviet system and its attitude toward people
        because of the frequent arrests then he immigrated to Turkey and died there
        from poverty
🔍
        a 48-year-old man suddenly became a bandit
        a man who dreamed of becoming an imam became a bandit
        a Lithuanian was a speaker then became a bandit
        And I became one, I want to kill the person who raped me, and everyone
        who allowed this to happen. That's how you raised me.
        The Dream Interpretation Dictionary Became a bandit. Interpretation of dreams for free
        Mom I became a bandit / ok.ru
        Dad I became a bandit...††† | vk.com
🔍
        to survive in Russia
        to survive in prison
        to survive in the army
        to survive in Kazan
        to survive in Novosibirsk
        to survive in Moscow
        to survive in old age
 


✉
I ran away, more than once. From the cops and from the prison. I'm not an ordinary guy. I’m not a slave. I can't be forced to take orders. Read books about real people. Smart, proud, brave, kind and become one yourself. Free. 



✉
Kill your husband. Somewhere Machiavelli says, I do not remember exactly, but something like: If a person does not understand from the first moment what is required of him, he should not be persuaded – he should be killed. In context, of course.


✉
During the escape I walked 100 km in the taiga, it rained for 3 days, the end of August, cold. It was extremely difficult to understand where you were. But I came out exactly where I had planned. Then I also thought that someone or something had helped me. I think so now. I suspect, anyway. But I don't believe in anything.
 
 
🔍   the fugitive was a 42-year-old repeat offender  
        who had been in prison for 20 years his term was due to expire this year
 
🔍   in Kamyshin a murderer is wanted
        in Khabarovsk a murderer is wanted
        a murderer and arsonist is wanted in Ufa (UPDATED)
 
                                                                                he’s been hiding for almost a month
        in the heating duct next to the half-decomposed corpse
        in a hut in a forest plantation                        
        in his friend’s apartment                   Freak go to execution !!! +7
        in Dagestan under a false name
        while his brother is an Interior Ministry employee  
        pressured witnesses                          Abolishment of the death penalty
                                                               is a sign of civilization? 
                                                               Then what do you do with rabid animals? + 4
 
🔍   the prisoner escaped from the Vologda prison
        by helicopter but was free
        for just a few hours
 
🔍   in the Vladimir region a murderer is wanted
        in Moscow a murderer is wanted
        who cut off the victim's limbs and genitals
        Cartoon "You're wanted". In the topic "Police." Comics, cartoons.  
 
🔍   the prisoner escaped from the prison
        to visit his mother's grave in Aktobe
 
🔍   on the Don they put on trial the murderer who had been on the run for 54 years
        The new photo montage: Putin on the run: Charter’97: News from Belarus
         be on the run: to be trying to avoid being caught, especially by the police (Cambridge dictionary)
 
        in the deep taiga for three years
        hiding in the cellars of the city of Chusovogo for a day                     
        in Lida and Lida district                              
        but then he came to the police himself        He needs to be hanged not imprisoned. In such creatures
                                                                                     nothing is sacred. Reply Angel +1
 
🔍   in Tuva a murderer is wanted
 
🔍   from a maximum security prison in the Vinnytsa region
        six criminals escaped led by
        a dangerous recidivist they dug a 30-meter hole
        under the wall of a workshop that was idle
        due to problems with the employment of prisoners
 
🔍   in the Ivanovo region a murderer is wanted
        the police are after me prank / will the guy give me in for a million / cruel prank
 
🔍   for ten days the police of the Kama River region are searching for
        a 60-year-old killer who escaped from a mental hospital on Bannaya mountain
        he will still be caught cornered like a hare
        somewhere to starve and freeze
        and sooner or later he’ll have to surface
 
 
✉
A book about me? It's too early to sum up. 
 
I have big plans. Like everyone else, right? I'm not interested in a legal business. I need an illegal one. I know a lot, why do I need an ad? 


 
✉
You're young. I'm not. There's a lot you don't know yet. They'll find me and kill me immediately. I'm dangerous. Forget about me.
 
I can find anyone. Therefore, others also. I am well-read, with the training of a saboteur, I am capable of levelling a city. I’m of "moral character". But only I think so. Others are different. You'll suffer too. Never meddle in a case where there's even the slightest threat.
 
I'm trained and you're not. You're a child. I have plans. Where everything is thought out.  
 
 
✉
No books about me, I’m telling you. I don’t play games. Such a gamble is serious. I’ve got 5 cats. If something happens, they will die without me. Young, I picked up their mother on the street, she died. They are like children for me. Children, indeed. That’s it.
 
 
✉
Kill, and you’ll find out. Writers write about what they’ve undergone themselves, don’t they?
 
 
🔍   a psychologist commented on the murder of a teacher by a student
        the contract killer spoke about his work and commented on his latest murder
        the minister of social protection spoke about his work and commented
        on his last murder listen to music ad-free a scantily dressed girl
        attacked Patriarch Cyril at … The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church didn’t react in any way
        a child is stealing: how to react correctly - I'm a happy MOM
 
                    my son is a bandit         
                    my husband is a bandit          
                    my father is a bandit
                    my brother is a bandit 
                    male bandit, who are you? Other
 
        results from the woman.ru site the first one’s
        husband was hanged in front of her in the apartment they raped her in turns
        she was pregnant and after all gave birth
        the child has weak eye muscles they basically spill out
        she lives in poverty and is afraid to accept help she’s afraid
        that it will happen to us       the second for the sake of
sold off her parents'             property           to
now he      and she                the girls and I  
our old things                        with food          she has nothing to buy clothes with
 
🔍    “Become a bandit: the risks are the same, but the income is greater”:
        Annual results in the Russian economy    
 
🔍      my son wants to become a police officer    help me change his mind, nothing good will come of it
                                                                     Russia of the 21st century: bandits protected by police officers
 
my son wants to become a priest                 tell me what to do!                 
                                bandits from the Russian Orthodox Church Results: approximately 315 000 (0,45 sec.)
        bandit
        bandit
🔍   bandit                       - horrible in short how can I dissuade him??
 
        - There’s no way, you should have brought him up better
                                                                      Like +1   Comment   Complain
 
         - If he gets his act together and catches up to the professionals in time
         he’ll succeed
         since I was 13 years old
         I've been running around the country had some ups and downs
         a spear in the liver a 9 mm in the forehead and on the hairpin turn
         jumping out of the careening car
         four hours hanging on my hands clambered
        and the roots of mountain plants
        worse than nettles... nah
        got out unharmed and when I got married went straight
        but in those 7 years I managed to get my fill and live it up
 
 
✉
Childhood was like yours. Everyone’s. Was the best in my class. Got arrested and went to juvie. Why the fuck do you need this? And I?


✉
Twice I loved. It all didn’t work out. I hope it won't happen again. God forbid. 
 
 
✉
Have a mother. But for 25 years she worked in the prosecutor's office, then in the city administration. All my relatives are like that. Only I'm normal.


 
✉
I was born that way. There was no turning point. I'm a romantic, I said. And you are people. I'm not. You're you and I'm me. It’s always been like that. And always will. One friend, a police colonel, said when she found out I was in prison: "Everyone makes mistakes". To which I replied: "I made a mistake, I got caught."
 
 
✉
One of the greats said: "I can't teach you anything, I can only help you learn". Man himself must learn. Everything must be tried, felt. You live only once. You need to know everything. Or you will be a slave of one who knows.
 
🔍      an ex-con can’t go back to normal life
                    can’t return home to Crimea
                    can’t start a new life because of his USSR citizenship
                    can’t get social housing
                    in most cases can’t come back to his place of residence
                    because it turns out that his family sold that property
 
CONSCRIPTION TV: “70% of crimes are committed by previous convicts,
that’s such a troubled category of people, primarily
those having domestic problems and problems in being employed”.
 
                    a parolee in Samara opened fire
                    next to the car / left the body / an ex-con
                    started a crack house in Pervouralsk
                    local news … and gambled away
                    his victim’s car / SuperOmsk
                    stole the gold / from prison / with a shotgun
                    at the citizens / an ex-con / and burned
                    a perforator / at the railway station Perm-2 (18+) / hijacked to
                    buy / coming out / was burning / a drink
                    a tool valued at 33.4 thousand rubles / pawned
 
🔍      Ex-convicts have the most difficulty in finding a job – The National Enquirer
An ex-con is running for president: Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth got released
in 2005 with an expired passport
I have only Mom no money no clothing in short
I have shit nowhere to live no friends as well
without a residency permit I’m fined a new passport
isn’t issued without a residency permit
 
couldn’t                   adapt on the outside                  tried to
shoot his family          and was killed              raped a nine-year-old girl
attacked             a twenty-year-old passer-by              with a knife                 beat
drinking companion                to death
 
                    OUR PRISONS TURN US INTO ANIMALS
                    OUR PRISONS TURN US INTO ANIMALS
                    OUR PRISONS TURN US INTO ANIMALS
 
🔍    Us and others: ex-convicts. belpressa.ru
 
                    beaten in a cell the day before
                    receiving clemency hanged in the toilet
                    of his cell the day before
                    his release opened his veins the day before
                    getting out attacked
                    a prison guard with a screwdriver
                    died of old age
                    a few days before the end of his prison term
 
✉
I’m disconnecting from facebook. No people here. Interesting for me at least. Ordinary.
Good-bye. You’re too small for this.
 
Translated by Sergei Tseytlin 
​
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​Maria Malinovskaya was born in Gomel (Belarus). She is PhD-student in Contemporary Poetry Studies at The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and an author of two books. The first one, a documentary poetry project and collection Kaimaniya (2020), is based on authentic speech of people suffering from mental disorders. The second one, The Movement of Hidden Colonies (2020), includes both lyrical and documentary poems, such as those from her most recent documentary poetry project that is based on testimonies of French–Ivorian clashes survivors. Malinovskaya’s poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines and translated into English, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish. She is a participant of The European Poetry Festival (UK), The Nordic Poetry Festival (Norway), the annual festival of sound-art and contemporary poetry Poetronica (Russia). She lives in Belarus and Russia. 


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  • Home
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    • Media Coverages
    • Copyright Notice
    • VerseVille Blog
  • Submissions
    • Poetry and Essays Guidelines
    • Book Review Guidelines
    • Research Series Guidelines
  • Masthead
  • Editions
    • 2011 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XIV November 2011
    • 2012 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XV March 2012
      • ISSUE-XVI July 2012
      • ISSUE-XVII November 2012
    • 2013 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XVIII April 2013
      • ISSUE XIX November 2013
    • 2014 Issues >
      • ISSUE XX May 2014
    • 2015 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXI February 2015
      • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • 2016 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIII August 2016
      • Poetry From Ireland ISSUE XXIV December 2016
    • 2017 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXV August 2017
      • ISSUE XXVI December 2017
    • 2018 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXVII July 2018
      • ISSUE XXVIII November 2018
    • 2019 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIX July 2019
    • 2020 ISSUES >
      • Issue XXX February 2020
      • ISSUE XXXI December 2020
    • 2021 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXII August 2021
    • 2022 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXIII June 2022
      • ISSUE XXXIV December 2022
  • Collaborations
    • Macedonian Collaboration
    • Collaboration with Dutch Foundation for Literature
  • Interviews
  • Prose on Poetry and Poets
    • 2010-2013 >
      • Sylvia Plath by Dr. Nidhi Mehta >
        • Chapter-1(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-2(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-4(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-5(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-6(Sylvia Plath)
      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-2(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-3(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-4(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-5(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-6(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-7(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-8(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions