-to my sister-
The weight of silence descends on me
Heavy like low clouds which press the sky,
A summer shower which makes
The sky and the sea become one,
A hefty marble tombstone on your grave.
I wish you spoke to me in my dreams
And told me you were in peace now.
I would tell you how I live day by day,
How I think of you and rarely cry,
But now and then my stony heart moans,
Puts asunder and turns into dust.
It is a miracle how it puts together
To be dissolved again and again,
And I wonder how many miracles
I deserve to happen in my life.
Petar Penda (he/ him/his) is a professor of English and American literature (University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina), literary critic, and translator. His translations have been published in renowned journals in the USA and the UK. His poetry and flash fiction have been published in Fevers of the Mind, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Trouvaille Review, Amphora, Dark Winter Lit, Suburban Witches and other journals.