Zvířata přicházejí do města – Iljašenko Marie (2025)

Cities are not just homes for people; they are also habitats for animals, birds, and plants. It is to them that the third collection by Marie Iljašenko (born 1983) is dedicated, accompanied by illustrations from Ukrainian artist Mariko Gelman. Foxes rest in the shade of London telephone booths, trout monitor the water quality in a Prague treatment plant, and wild peas thrive among the stripes of the city ring road. But let’s not expect any idyll; in the best case, people ignore their neighbors or superficially empathize with them, and in the worst, they deny them the right to a home. The poems tell stories about biotopes such as streams, wastelands, urban canyons, and green corridors, and about traps in the form of glass surfaces, thorns, skylights, and grates. Can we talk about animals and plants, or even speak in their voice, while avoiding simplification, lecturing, and anthropomorphism? We must at least try. Urban, natural, and at the same time intimate lyrics about the everyday life of a pheasant, about the demon of cuteness, owls, rabbits, philodendrons, a cat and a tomcat, and about coexisting with them.