A Journey - Jovanka Uljarević

I am not here where you see me

or there where they know me

There is here for me

And here is too far

It is like when madmen in a madhouse

tell you that you are mad

And you call them mad

Asking yourself whether they could really reveal your madness

Or is it only an insanity they want to confront with their own

We have also been given a name

So that they could call us with no meaning

I went to see a shrink

He was a “she” and did not call me by name

I was so small

And she mounted me to the window in her room

To show me some pigeons’ nest

It was so ugly that I liked it

I said it was beautiful

I remember her perfectly

And the look on her face while telling me that I was sane

I think we understood each other.

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Jovanka Uljarević (born 1979) Montenegro

Translated by: Zoran Paunović

Source: LyrikLine