Poems by Tomica Bajsić 

Hymn to Killing                            
 
                                          The Devil is at the keyboards.
                                          Blaise Cendrars
 
 
one hears a hymn to killing
a hymn to lead bullets
piercing through the human flesh
like angels
entering the plexuses of saints
like fast trains
drilling through the Sub-Atlantic tunnels
like nails driven through the wet boards
on the 37th floor of a high-rise
like a hooker's smile
biting into your heart
 
 

 
 
When You Hit Yourself with An Axe While Chopping Wood
 
 
You don't think about poetry then
or about great deeds
or about politics
you don't defy God.
you are as small as a pea
as you wait for the pain
to go away.
 
When you're riddled with shrapnel
from a mortar grenade
you don't think about the effect
you have on women
or about the national anthem. 
you crawl under a rock
as you wait for the pain
to go away.
 
When the prison door
bangs shut behind your back –
that's when you think about freedom.
 
 

Tomica Bajsić (1968) poet, publicist, translator and editor was born in Zagreb. He has published several collections of poetry and won some prestigious national awards. He is the president of the Croatian PEN Centre and the editor of his own publishing house Druga Priča. 

---

---