A Poem by Daria Serenko: ‘Girl in Labor’

In late February 2022, the Russian artist Daria Serenko co-founded the Feminist Anti-Battle Resistance, an underground community of Russians protesting the invasion of Ukraine, publicizing Russian struggle crimes towards Ukrainians, and serving to Russian males evade conscription. In March, Serenko was compelled to flee Russia for Georgia, the place she wrote this prose poem.

Yesterday a girl started giving delivery immediately on the Crimson Sq. with an assault rifle pressed to her temple. The guardians of legislation and order didn’t know what to do. Was it an act of unauthorized delivery or an act of unauthorized protest? Parturition or efficiency?

Have a look at this girl with an unwelcome face whose waters broke on the Crimson Sq.. Right here this girl is already screaming and writhing the best way individuals had been screaming and writhing on the final demonstrations; the lady is screaming the best way individuals being tortured scream on the opposite facet of the closed door on the police station. It’s nothing new for the cops. The lady is screaming and blood seems on the burst corners of her dry mouth. The opening of her mouth measures seven centimeters.

Time stands nonetheless and there’s nobody on the sq. other than the cops, the lady, and the daughter she is giving delivery to, who’s verbally camouflaged as a son. She informed the police she was having a son in order that they might act nicer to her. One of many cops, the great cop apparently, says: “You don’t fear, girl, you’re giving delivery to a hero for us. Have a look at the time and place he picked to be born: within the very coronary heart of Russia, on the very peak of the struggle.” He’s talking actually slowly for some motive, and the lady can be screaming slower and slower, and the ambulance isn’t coming. Each hour the clock strikes upon the Kremlin tower. Snowflakes soften even earlier than touching the new face of the lady in labor.

Regularly the cops settle down and even level their weapons apart. They make repeated makes an attempt to stroll away from the scene with the intention to name for assist however after a minute the street carries them again to the place they began. The Crimson Sq. is the place the Earth is at its roundest. Two policemen and a younger girl discover themselves utterly alone on this spherical Earth within the very coronary heart of Russia on the very peak of the struggle.

“So we’ll be taking the supply, proper?” considered one of them asks into the air, giving the lady in labor a plaintive look, and extends his hand out towards her as if for a handshake. The lady in labor screams at him with all her drive, swearing foully and loudly, after which bites by way of his hand with a protracted howl. With the identical hand he slaps her throughout the face.

“You settled down now? You retain your self collectively, girl. I don’t care if you happen to’re a girl or not. If I’ve to, I’ll pull the child out of you, after which stick you within the monkey home with the remainder; you’ll be mendacity there whimpering on a dirty mattress.” The lady closes her eyes and nods. One cop props up her again; the opposite begins fidgeting between her legs.

An limitless period of time passes and, because the hour is hanging upon the stately tower, they put the child, wrapped in a police jacket and steaming within the nippy air, into her arms. The cops congratulate each other. There are tears of their eyes. They kiss one another on the cheeks, not even noticing they extracted a daughter somewhat than a son.

The lady with the lady in her arms is trying up on the clear, starry Kremlin sky. A reminiscence steals into her thoughts that right here, proper subsequent to her, an unburied useless man is mendacity in his Mausoleum. A rancid haze generally obscures her view: New crematoriums have sprung up throughout the nation, and the smoke from their smokestacks generally casts a heavy smog over town. The useless remind the townspeople of themselves by taking their breath away and forcing them to cough.

Time lastly involves life. Vacationers and spectators begin gaping round them. The lads in uniform raise the mom and the daughter of their arms and carry them away. The lady is requested to attend for the medical doctors on the police station. She and the child are fastidiously positioned right into a cage the place different girls are sitting, their heads bowed on each other’s shoulders. They present indicators of getting been there for a lot of hours: Moist stains are spreading on their shirts and blouses. It’s milk. She decides to not ask them but what they’re there for. It’s quiet within the cell, besides behind the iron lattice door, she will be able to hear the entire bureau of cops joyfully gathering to clean down the delivery of her son.