#69

This post comes to us from Relja Cvjetićanin.  After growing up in a Serbian family in Australia, Relja moved to Belgrade in 2011 to see what life would be like in Serbia.  This poem was written a couple of years after Relja’s return to Australia, and first appeared on his travel blog, Serbia by Numbers.

a bouquet of roses for his girlfriend,
angus and julia stone on the bus to sombor,
the sunburned corn fields, 39 degrees,
bottles of that water, can’t get enough,
walking everywhere,
a band playing, dancing with the smiley hippy kids,
eurovision party at the australian house,
six euro taxi rides,
dickheads handing down wisdom, surprise!
the cobble-stoned streets in karaburma,
roma kid, crooked teeth, and the same song every day,
so many chevapi that I made myself sick,
so many crepes that I made myself sick,
so much rakija, to help me get better,
running around the fortress,
that thick november fog,
the greatest view in the world – top of resavska 23,
katy perry saxophone, vladimir putin graffiti.

© Relja Cvjetićanin, 2017