Self-Defence Poem by Luljeta Lleshanaku

Sealed within this anguish
As in a tent of soldiers with no return
Where all of your attempts to escape
Inevitably rub against the chest of someone else
Lying next to you.

There is nowhere for you to go,
The stars like the fingernails of a sorceress
Fashion your fate in the smoke.

And you understand there is no other way out
Than to return to your nook in life
And count the holes in the old blanket
Which the hot embers of others left on it before you.

Here in the heavy air
We suck on bits of the unconsciousness of each one,
Of the unconsciousness of the others
Who like icebergs
Know no borders.

And all the time, in our souls,
Bewilderingly
The leucocytes on the rise.