I read papers when they’re just brought in from outside,
from minus 27 degrees, fresh and cold off the presses. From all
the morning papers I remember only one self-sustaining article:
like the recipe for a simple cake, the list of scientific advances
in 2003 was inserted between the ads and Christmas
wishes. Glass has been invented that refracts
at a negative angle.

Lucky are those unconcerned by this, those whose bodies
find their way back from every mirror.
The wife of a real estate magnate puts down her comb,
perks up her breasts a little before heading out
to the annual bridge club dinner.

Only four percent of the universe you live in
is normal matter: the stars, the hills, the automobiles.
All the rest is black emptiness and dark energy.
Blessed are those unaware of this.
Like the taxi driver who sells minutes
waiting for the magnate’s wife. In a 13
billion year old universe, his life is less than
a single blink of an eye. Is nothing.

© 2009 by Milorad Pejić

Translated from Bosnian by Wayles Browne, Stephanie Krueger, and Sasha Skenderija
© 2009

The preceding text is copyright of the author and/or translator and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.