Boris Dralyuk
Three Martinis
for J.L.
Dry
Life is served up with trace amounts of youth —
the ratio of vodka to vermouth.
Dirty
You asked for it. Again. An old mistake.
Dirt never settles or grows less opaque.
Perfect
Bitter and sweet may seal their win-win deal
but the wee hours ready its repeal.
Boris Dralyuk reads “Three Martinis”
Boris Dralyuk is the author of My Hollywood and Other Poems (Paul Dry Books, 2022) and the translator of Isaac Babel, Andrey Kurkov, Maxim Osipov, and other authors. His poems, translations, and criticism have appeared in the NYRB, the TLS, The New Yorker, Best American Poetry 2023, and elsewhere. Formerly editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, he is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow and teaches in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa.