Simply about people
Sandra Manuela her daddy and I
went to visit
my mother in Zagorje
a big event for both families
checking out a dowry
my mum boiled the rooster
and made soup with noodles
she baked and deep-fried the meat
and prepared three different side dishes
two kinds of salads and a cheese pie
she served the meals in her best tableware
and she used the tablecloth for special occasions
it was summertime and we were eating outside
in the shadow of two birches and a jasmine tree
her dad was disappointed
he does not like poverty
he barely escaped from it
he said that the house should be demolished
that all of it was worth nothing
he did not pay any attention
to the things my mum was saying
about an emotional attachment to the house
about the memories and the lack of money
he agreed to fix the door
he kicked a thick wire
that was holding the door
*
during the summer of love
my mum went hitchhiking
to Turkey and Syria
Lebanon and Jordan
she rode a horse
through the ancient town of Petra
carved in stone
she swam in the Red Sea
and on the Syrian-Lebanon border
she refused a skillfully rolled joint
from the chief of the police station
when the TV news announced
that the bomb of a Palestinian
suicide bomber had gone off too soon
she is sorry for the boy
she is angry when in a documentary movie
Petra has not been shown according to her taste
she yells at the TV
why didn’t you film or
show the most important things
look, they skipped even that
it seems that time stands still
or it goes back thirty
something years
on that journey
she did not take a single photo
she wanted to be different
from the stupid tourists
and their cameras