Three Poems by Petar Penda

 

RAIN IN JUNE

 

You promised it wouldn't rain in June

but I woke up and felt it coming

for no reason or for so many reasons.

Unspoken words dulled my mind,

built walls around me and

set self-suffocating fires

extinguishing my inner world.

 

Days went on and I wondered 

how long one could bear it. 

Then the rain turned into a downpour

but I still believed in your promise

that it wouldn't rain in June.

 

 

OBLIVION

 

King Lear rages within me,

Storms, thunders and lightning,

Disquiet of the stone's frailty

And the memory of its old power,

A solid rock becomes soil, 

The sea wins the land and 

feeds itself with the oblivion,

Swallows words and turns them into the sand. 

 

When the Ararat tops disappear and

Water takes away our bodies,

Will our prayers to sea gods be met

To lighten us with words and keep us alive.

 

 

ONENESS

 

A small coastal village,

a patio with a mosaic 

and a table with two chairs

hidden between old roofed houses

and we cast furtive glances

at each other.

The rumbling of the sea waves

stirs our minds and

gives us the needed courage.

Like two branches bowing 

in the steady breeze,

we move our hands closer

to the middle of the table,

slowly lift the cigarettes,

our smokes merge

and become one.

 

Petar Penda is a professor of English and American literature (University of Banja Luka) and a translator. His translations have been published in renowned journals in the USA and the UK. His poetry was published by "Fevers of the Mind", " Lothlorien Poetry Journal", "A Thin Slice of Anxiety", "Trouvaille Review" and others.