Vasko Popa Poems

Sing little box

Don't let sleep overtake you
The world's awake within you
...

Some bite from the others
A leg an arm or whatever

Take it between their teeth
...

Once upon a time there was a mistake
So silly so small
That no one would even have noticed it
...

We raise our arms
The street climbs into the sky
We lower our eyes
The roofs go down into the earth
...

Shut one eye then the other
Peek into every corner of yourself
See that there are no nails no thieves
See that there are no cuckoo's eggs
...

Give me back my rags

My rags of pure dreaming
Of silk smiling of striped foreboding
...

Unquiet you walk
Along the rims of my eyes

On the invisible grating
...

Look here's that uninvited
Alien presence look it's here

A shudder on the ocean of tea in the cup
...

Someone hides from someone else
Hides under his tongue
The other looks for him under the earth
...

Nobody rests

This one constantly shifts his eyes
Hangs them on his head
...