Emptyfull by Evgeniya Dineva

Evgeniya Dineva

Evgeniya Dineva is a poet from Bulgaria. Her works appear in Oxford Poetry Library, The Hong Kong Review, Ethel, Asian Cha and others. Her debut poetry collection Animals Have No Fathers came out in November 2023. Evgeniya is a fellow of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation for Creative Writing and the recipient of the Traduki Writer Grant, Tirana 2025.

Emptyfull – the feeling of being uncertain about things surrounding you

Things I Felt Emptyfull About This December:

Peanut butter and feta cheese

My best friend’s pregnancy

My best friend’s divorce

When Nelly said, “Isn’t this the worst Christmas ever?” and I didn’t know what to say

People who say, “I could have drawn this too”.

The seven-hour-long wait at the vet’s

Your favourite noir movie

The day it snowed for 11 hours, and I didn’t have to go to work

Grandma, who took off her clothes and went out in the snow. Later, she forgot about it, the way she forgot so many other things

My nephew, who did the same and told everyone he wanted to show everyone his dinosaur pants

That feeling you can’t trust yourself

Wet socks at the doorstep

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers T-shirt you forgot in my apartment

Chia seeds that get stuck between your teeth

The woman next to me at the bus stop, who told me her son was eighteen and had cancer

My mother, who said she felt like she no longer had a daughter

On Tuesday, when you called the suicide hotline and they told you to go for a walk

The beeping sound of the clock, the fridge, the washing machine, and grandma’s heart monitor

The countdown until New Year’s

Late afternoon naps

When you told me you remembered your father in shouts and commands

Ollie’s eyes when he saw fireworks for the first time

The silence after