THE RIJEKA WOMEN IN SENEGAL Poem by Milorad Stojević

(at the 1756 Expo)



There were few Rijeka women in Senegal,
The sky's blue blued them on the out-voyage then,
until return the arrows given and the grail
- oars milled into shadows, Thebes of the black men.

Few of them returned, half were plague-ridden -
Half were cicatrised by cotton thread -
by ancient melted seals, one bidden
by milky privates, by a tormented head.

There were few Rijeka women in Senegal.
Few of them returned, half were plague-ridden.
In quarantine they handed them over to Baal -
fed them on snakes, grieved them with scorn unhidden.

Fired them with fires, through the mirror listening,
wherein a child is squirming, as in eyes a-glistening.