You raise your voice and you
Speak –
some clap.
You fear they’ll take over
As if a cloud
Could cover up the skies forever or
The rain
Could wash up the Kamešnica
Away from this land
That is yours and that is
also
Theirs
For that is land for all,
For those who seek to live
Like animals instinctively
do
and just like we
also happen
To do
Like a child
You run and hide under your bed,
Like a child running loose
Without the presence of a sensible soul
You get your hands on the first heavy and
sharp thing you find
And you aim
At this imminent threat,
The made-up ghost
You raise your voice
And your cup
You drink as if there were no Tomorrows
No days to live as one
Like the humans we all happen to be
Like one
Full of flaws but still perfect
For being
You kill
As if a heart were worth a sack of stones
‘For those, those I threaten
have killed my own!’
In the past
The remote past,
But the past, one may reason
Doesn’t run back
To the present
With foamy mouths and
Empty stomachs
To collect installments
On old dues
The past is not aware of
The pain or shame
One of your own
Has endured
So do not reenact the theatre
Of a war that is not yours to fight
Be it with kindness
Or awareness,
Learn to relearn.
Note that putting the gun down
Is all one will be remembered for
In the end
Put your gun down, boy
I want to feel the kindness
Dripping from the scent of the memory
I’ll take with me to my grave:
The picture of your deep, grayish and
piercing
Blue eyes
Being kind.
I want to cherish you
As much
As I cherish
The ones you have hated
For far too long now
And for no good reason
At all
Stavite svoje oružje dole.
It’s all you have to do,
Oružje na terenu.
~~~
