Romanian Monthly Kukai - February 2016

Theme: Dragobete (the Romanian equivalent for Valentine’s Day, celebrated on February 24)

Special Prize

another Dragobete –

left without a match

the lace gloves

Ana Drobot

A poem of nostalgia discreetly suggested. Another Dragobete observes the barren sequence of the years in which the calendar reminds, in a rather painful way, of what has been and will remain unrepeatable.  (Her) gloves without a match is the evocation of an expressive detail of what has been and never will be again. Expressive because it sends, symbolically, to times long gone. And it is not about a glove, peerless relic, but about the matchless, uniqueness of a love and of an era. The pair without a match.

 Another Dragobete can also be read in the sense of exceptionality, of another kind of. The one described is not just different. In fact, it is not just any holiday, but one that is special. It is the kind of holidays we recall with piety and regret, as we would say, in a tender and slightly ironic way, just like Sorescu: life was otherwise back then, more tactful…

(Comment by Corneliu Traian Atanasiu)

First Place

Dragobete day –
carved in the bark an
empty heart

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă

Second Place

Dragobete -

the neighbour’s rooster

jumping over the fence

Genovel-Florentin Frățilă

Third Place

Dragobete day -

even the snowman

glancing at the gate

Rafila Radu

Fourth Place

signs of thaw –

a warmer look

on Dragobete

Grigore Chitul

Dragobete -
hidden well under the cap
white hairs

Adriana Iacob

Fifth Place

on Dragobete -
the old lady’s glasses
getting foggy

Vasile Conioși-Mesteșanu

Sixth Place

on Dragobete -
a homeless man hugs
a dog to his chest

Mihai Mateiciuc