Poems by Nikolina Andova Shopova

Everything is pierced


Everything here is pierced
the sky we spy through the lenses of the telescopes
and the folders on our office desks
the little windows in the ship cabins when we
travel
and the massive walls in the temples in which we pray

And the blankets of the secret lovers burnt from cigarettes
are pierced
and the world we see through the rings of the ancestors
the memories like cookie-dough when we shape
the targets in humans forms on which we practice shooting

everything, everything is pierced
the spy-holes on the doors closed for beggars
the earth from the ant’s destroyed homes
god who we search through the circular openings of the domes




Let's escape from time 


Let's escape from time 
that threatens us with a pulled bow 
and takes aim with the small arrow 
This is what I wanted to tell you: 
- If I pass with my hand on a geographical map 
 I will not touch the mountains nor the peaks 
I will not get wet nor fill my hands with soil 
so tonight when you pass your hand through my body 
you won't find dust or wind, neither my name
that is always reborn
Because I do not know how much time had passed tonight 
minute, hour, year, lifetime 
maybe 
Sometimes when I look up and down 
I do not know which trail seems longer 
one on the jet plane in the sky 
or the one that the snail had left behind

Nikolina Andova Shopova was born on 3 February 1978 in Skopje. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology (Macedonian and South Slavic literature) at the St Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. She writes poetry and her haiku takes part in the anthology of the new wave of Macedonian haiku. She has published two books of poetry. “The entrance is on the other side” (2013) and “Connect the dots” (2014). Her first book “The entrance is on the other side“ was awarded with the prestigious award Bridges of Struga in 2013, award of UNESCO and the Struga Poetry evenings for best debut book. In 2016, a trilingual selection of her poems in English, Macedonian and French is published by Éditions Bruno Doucey (Paris). Her poems are translated into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Chinese. She takes part in many anthologies of Macedonian poetry. Besides poetry, she writes short stories and poems for children.

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