Wounded Bird
Goran Poletan
Look dad!
I found a nightingale with a broken wing.
Is it better to bring it home
and heal it until it recovers
or leave it free?
It’s just destiny showing its invincibility.
If you bring it home to heal
it will die from sorrow
and if you leave it in freedom
it will be eaten by predators.
Exile
Goran Poletan
Exile!
The worst punishment!
…When God takes everything except memory,
which is left only to make everything even worse.
The end of one life!
Farewell to your home,
farewell to your birthplace,
to your friends and relatives,
farewell to everything
and everybody that you loved.
A new beginning!
Like on another planet!
Like a newborn child!
Like deaf-and-dumb!
Like a blind man!
Like an ignoramus,
an object of mockery!
Like an injured lion,
surrounded by hyenas!
Like in a bad dream!
Like in a Kafka novel!
Without any language!
Without any direction!
Without friends!
Without past!
Without happiness!
Fear
Goran Poletan
Like a monk,
Who dreams to unite with the absolute,
Without any desire for reincarnation,
Knowing how much pain life brings,
With it bringing death,
Its fellow-traveller
And rival who, at the end,
Always wins,
So my heart fears
From a new love.