1
Not many people to talk to here
The birds I miss
the hares too
Deer are never mentioned anymore
except on menus and roadsigns on the karst

2
Early in the morning the cockerels crow here too
And today a squirrel tumbled
black and ruffled from a tree
onto the asphalt at'my feet

3
Late one evening not long ago beneath a lemon moon
my dog and I watched a hedgehog
near a dustbin chewing paper scraps apathetically
while cats rattled inside

4
Water is abundant here
It frightens me
When the wind is right I smell it all the way home

5
And the Bora! All night
window shutters are clattering
In the morning they lie unhinged in the bushes
plaster crumbles away from the weathered walls

6
Last year's corn still occupies the land
rustling white and dusty in the wind
It is too late again
to burn down the fields

to make room for the new for this year's crop

Translated by David Chorlton
From: Hardly the Blink of an Eye. Edited by David Chorlton