SUMMER Poem by Miroslav Mićanović

You could hear them
on the bridge, crossing the river
and going from house to
house.

They beat the drum
and drag a bear
in chains.

They call locals to come out
from backyards to see him
dancing.

They hit him
across the snout
with an ironbound club.

Excitement and terror,
fear and curiosity were stronger than
numbness in his
eye.

Big, seedy bear,
lay in dust next to his
dark master after the dance,
and master put down his tool,
and squabbles over money
they promised to him.

Afterward, summer was all around, boredom,
and mosquitoes, and traces of their trail
from house to house.