Snapshots

by Christine Bevilacqua


I speak to Anastasia , who lives in Vinnytsia Ukraine, once a week as part of a Ukrainian program through Zoom to help her improve her conversational English.
Most of the hour is spent in small talk about her job, everyday matters, her 14-year-old son and the war.
We read/discuss short stories. Her favorite author is Pushkin.
We’re interrupted by an alert she gets on her phone of an air raid warning.
Five minutes later she is talking from the basement shelter of her job.
She calls her son and he continues to nonchalantly walk from school.
We talk of how we spent Christmas and exchange pictures of our Christmas trees.
She mentions her dad is coming over the next day to tape the big mirror in her bedroom.
We exchange recipes.
Her Mom worries her grandson eats too much pasta and offers to cook for her.
She tells me how the sound of drones she heard the night before is like a jackhammer.
I explain how many of us in the US want Congress to support Ukraine.
She tells me how many former classmates and friends she has lost to the war.
Sometimes I don’t know what to say.


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Christine Bevilacqua, retired school counselor, lives in Staten Island in a blue house with her cats Jaxxy and Misty and her long-time boyfriend. She is part of an online writing class with fellow educators. One of her poems was recently accepted for publication in the Raven Review.