Sarajevo

for Jasminko Halilovic
“I have seen the face of sorrow.
It is the face of
the Sarajevo wind leafing through newspapers
glued to the street by a puddle of blood …”— Goran Simic
      A blue compass
      the letters to the high-school crush
      the candy-striped-clad Barbie
      the plastic lemony apple with teeth marks
      the teddy bears
      the friends who are suddenly ‘on the other side’
      the collection of food cans testifying to the charity of others
      the colouring books
      seeds from the horse chestnut trees that propped mock
battles
football matches
interrupted by lightning moves from shelter to shelter
an assembly of memories instead of children