User’s photos, Branimir Milovanović
JANUARY
Children’s fingerprints
On a frozen window
Of a small schoolhouse.
An empire, I read somewhere,
Maintains itself through
The cruelty of its prisons.
A LIFE OF VICE BEGINS IN THE CRADLE
Grandpa loved crawling
Under the skirts of his mother’s friends
As they sat on the porch
On warm sunny afternoons
Sipping sweat tea and chatting
About neighbors and relatives,
Ignoring the toddler running
His small hands up their legs.
MYSTERY THEATER
Bald man smoking in bed,
Naked lightbulb over his head,
The shadow of his cigar
Next to him on the wall,
Its long ash about to fall
Into a pitch-dark fishbowl.
The gift from Charles Simic and Vojislav Pejovic, who translated these poems into Montenegrin.
Paris Review, Spring 2015
Peščanik.net, 01.04.2015.
Related:
The New York Times – Charles Simic Displays a Poet’s Voice and His Passions, by Dwight Garner
