I wake up
dressed in a smile

it reaches all the way to my ankles

should I take it for a walk
for fresh air in the park
to survive at least until evening
or should I cook it
into a vegetable soup
for the fragile family equilibrium

on my way out
I don’t dare look in the mirror

-Aksinia Mihaylova, 
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)

Aksinia Mihaylova was born on April 13th, 1963 in the northwest region of Bulgaria. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. She is a founding editor of the literary journal Ah, Maria. Aksinia is the author of three poetry books. Her most recent book, Unbuttoning of the Body (2011), won both the Hristo Fotev Annual Poetry Award and the Milosh Zyapkov National Award for Literature. She has translated over 30 books of poetry and prose, and has edited anthologies of contemporary Lithuanian and Latvian poetry. She lives and works in Sofia.