Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Will you understand?

(I loved this poem of Tatjana's so much I wanted to post it for everyone to read)

squeezed into my patter
as an embryo in the womb's
water
i curl muscles and pucker up lips:
my name is
beg your pardon
thank you

it is easier to read the winds around me
than pronounce these chits

i can flee all the rages of the seas
but the cloud of my mother tongue
that follows my boat, a greedy sea-gull
will it ever leave me alone?

the only one i have, a bad penny
the alphabet stiff as a birthmark
once shiny, dainty and rich
now a weary rug stuck to my skin
just a puff, groan, a shivering heave
i can't strip off my flesh

it does not make any sense a moan
i gasp to the wind, who will ever grasp
what is behind my silence once i reach this land?
oh mein gott! mio dio!
boze moj! my god!
will you hear me better
when i touch the furthest shore

and understand me
with no translator
when i sigh
my lord?

© 2007 Tatjana Lukic

1 comment:

Isobel Hannan said...

You may be interested to know that la, la, la by Tatjana Lukic will be launched on Sunday 17 May in Canberra - see http://www.paperchainbookstore.com.au/PaperchainBookStore/events.cfm?events_id=150&view=detail for more details.

If you can’t make it to the launch but would like to order a copy of the book, please contact Five Islands Press - http://www.fiveislandspress.com