1.
After two weeks
of watching only MTV
we called a satellite
repairman
from Bitola.
Just as he came
the electricity was gone,
nothing we could do.
Long is the hand
of state
broadcasting.
2.
Two obituaries
on the poll
in two days.
Even if we hadn’t seen them
we would still have known
that death had entered
the village.
It dies anyway.
3.
The yellow hammock
between two trees
is blown by the wind –
looks like a belly
of a pregnant woman.
It explains
why you turn
into a foetus .
4.
Every time we go out
we fill our car
with garbage bags,
so that we don’t throw it
into the village river.
All the way to Slivnica
it stinks
like spoiled meat.
Good intentions
are paved
with strong stench.
5.
At the Ohrid entrance
across from each other
two funeral homes –
one is eternal dream,
the other one peaceful.
When you come to think of it
there is a qualitative difference.
Near there’s “Parliament” restaurant,
eternal glory
and real democracy.
6.
At the place of Park hotel
they build apartments
with a view to the lake,
EUR 2.500 per square meter.
Can I get
a hypotenuse
for EUR 100?
7.
The village is called Flat,
and there is
a kilometre long uphill to it.
They must have wanted
to screw the Turks,
so they move uphill
without proper preparations.
The rebels hid
behind the bushes
and giggled
when they started
to cuss,
kerata, anasana.
So, we did have
geo-strategic policies.
8.
Nobody mentions
Pero Sibev any more,
the most famous
Gjavato drunkard.
When I was a kid he came to visit
and when we asked him
what he wanted to drink
dressed in a Srem Front
military coat
he said:
“I’d prefer
a cup of coffee with milk.”
9.
In the centre of Bitola, a graffiti:
“Macedonian, weak up!”
Grammar is the opium
for the masses.
10.
Resen monument
shaped like an apple
must have rusted,
like a rotten one.
Still, it becomes a fruit,
since it is organic
to be rotten.
What about a babe?
11.
When he was a kid
my father had a dog,
they called it Barack.
It was surplus
and they gave it away in Svinjista,
If the Americans heard
about Barack’s persecution now
we would be in trouble.
12.
Somebody stole the road sign
at the entrance to the village,
but at a right turn
next to it
there is a self-made sign
“Gulabova maala”.
Steal globally,
act locally.
13.
This year, for the first time
I wasn’t stung by a mosquito.
Doesn’t look good.
If the insects don’t care
about me anymore,
soon the people
will stop caring too.
14.
The buzz of the bees
mixes with the buzz
of the refrigerator.
Honey and meat.
15.
Zivko Topev
who lives on the hill
was called
Boom TV –
his was the only place
that had TV.
16.
“A slime’s hanging from your nose,
do you have a cold?”
“No, it’s an accessory”,
says Ivan,
and pushes it back in.
17.
“Strangers in the night”
on my father’s
clarinet
Sounds the same as
“Ne se beli Mare mori”.
Woody Allen’s
must be the opposite.