The Landscape Book
*
cranes shift
constructed as skeletons
of extinct sacred animals
to face the silo
to stare it down
*
pine trees are scared;
their shadows getting longer as we speak
*
shadows draw out
across the park and all the way
to the curb—cars will soon run them over
*
background sounds: rain, whistling
freight train crossing the bridge or
Orient Express pulling into Istanbul
*
blue light on my fingers:
did I awaken the computer screen
or open the balcony
above a Dubrovnik cliff?
*
a drop of dew slides
down the stone wall, onto
my shoulder blade. chill.
*
tourists!
their carriage passes by and
the Moon in the puddle
shatters under the hooves
*
tomorrow at 2 PM
local ballet academy
will perform
Coppelia
in the factory hall
(complimentary sandwiches and soft drinks)
*
cello player’s thin
physique—a tear surprised me
(he died the next year)
*
maybe if I knew the language of dogs
but then again, maybe not
Snežana Žabić was born in Croatia in 1974 and currently lives in Chicago. She writes in English and Serbo-Croatian and has been translated into Polish, Swedish, and Macedonian. Her poems in English appeared in Papertiger: New World Poetry, The Muse Apprentice Guild, Optimism, and elsewhere.