Something has changed between me and people since I became a parent to one of them. – Paul Claudel

I’m running home with my little daughter –
again, shells have surprised us on the street.
Shells have, for centuries, been falling every day,
and every time they surprise us.
I’m hurrying her on with angry words:
transferring my rage from the Serb gunners
to a child awaited for ten years.
Let me write my name, she tells me, as we pass
a patch of virgin snow in the park.
Instead of scolding her,
I—God knows why—let her forefinger
break the delicate whiteness,
and then, around the Cyrillic IVANA VEŠOVIĆ
my forefinger describes a circle,
impenetrable.

Like in fairy-tales.

Translated by Omer Hadžiselimović – © 2008 Omer Hadžiselimović

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