Purification Poem by Naida Mujkic

Under black dog tags they came from Ogrozdon, everyone of them
Was the eyewitness of the one next to it, in tangled bones
Of last years falls. Niggardly, tinned in its own
Dusky question. - Well, where are you? , it asked me
While rolling easier then the moon.
- Inside of you - I answered. But black nuts didnt hear me.
Then I felt checkered napkin with skulls on it, over it
My mother lived a life as if it was her own.
No one noticed our secret moral.
Our steps into emptiness.
Power not to say: We are the criminals that soak the witnesses
Into ourselves, and for that we are ineffably grateful.
Our heart closed in masks died thousand times since then
In front of outer walls in which we felt breath of old age.
Even before we learned that we shouldnt go far
To forget chords of the apocalypse that cover our garden.
We closed the entrance door to our house. We didn't know if we should go out or not.
Downpour wasnt starting when I decided to run away from her.
I passed between daisy and edelweiss. They were protected by cobweb.
I tried not to snag them. Though edelweiss yelled: come to me!
I closed my eyes, teriffied. Mother was still in the kitchen, same swing
With a meat hammer. Same cracking of dog tags under fingers.
She wanted to clean her body of parasites, worms and fungus.
But, she doesn't yell at them, or picks up their body liquids.
She just bumps and bumps.
I opened my eyes, horrified.
It's the caterpillar, licking my foot.