Svetlana Litvinchuk

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Inheritance as Theft, as Told by the Daughter of an Alcoholic

My father was still a young man when he quit 
supporting our family. He no longer felt like lining
other peoples’ pockets—his boss, his wife, his child—
all unworthy of sacrifice. He bought a guitar covered
in fingerprints and stuffed songs into his wallet.

My father’s mother died carrying the burden
of giving him life, a debt that transfers from mother
to wife. When they exchanged vows, he stuffed
my mother in a sack and threw her in the river,
made music of her drowning.

My father owned a fishing pole and a glass bottle
that spent its life inside a paper bag that he never
bothered to fold into a sailboat for me. When he lay
dying, he never thought to launch a letter in its
empty stomach. His final words remain, “so go,
if you’re going.”

My father’s brother mistook meaning for his reflection
at the bottom of a shotglass. He broke into neighboring
flats, stole wallets and purses, he broke his mother’s heart
until his own shattered from the inside out when a splinter
threw itself into his vein and busted infinity wide open.

My father’s father knew how to drink, according
to my mother. He taught his sons to turn the bathtub
into a distillery, but kept temperance out of the inheritance—
never handing them the keys, only the shackles.

His eyes never meeting theirs to say if you find yourselves
lost at sea, men, don’t forget to paddle home. But then he
wasn’t the one who would have to watch them drown.

Svetlana Litvinchuk is the author of a poetry chapbook, Only a Season (Bottlecap Features, 2024) and a forthcoming full-length poetry collection, Navigating the Hallways by Starlight (spring 2026). Nominated for Pushcart, Best of the Net, and a finalist for the Slippery Elm Poetry Prize, her poetry appears in ANMLY, swamp pink, About Place, Strange Horizons, Rust + Moth, Sky Island Journal, Arkana, and elsewhere. She is the Managing Editor of ONLY POEMS and a Guest Editor for Rockvale Review in 2025. Find her on Instagram @s.litvinchuk and www.svetlanalitvinchuk.com