When things are looking bleak and when something turns out to have a sudden odd spin, an incredibly radical outcome, my way has always been the same, ever since the pre-teen years: I suddenly value every single second of the previous, details pop up and every single second of them is suddenly worth one full day of now. And I dream of how much I didn’t appreciate then and how I’d almost worship “tomorrow” if it was like “yesterday”. It’s interesting to come back to this topic 13-14 years later, with a mature mind, an actual serious issue in its centre and much richer senses that could memorise every single bit of “yesterday”.

That is what the happier part of my other poetry book in works, Forever Nine, will be about. The happier part consists of happy p..ms written when I’m feeling mellow, when I feel that there is hope that the “now” will turn out good or that “yesterday” equals “tomorrow”. The sadder part is hopeless. Not Wrong Star kind of hopeless, not eternally hopeless – rather hopeless with a definite ending that varies from bad to the worst.

In the “yesterday” stories, there’s the ultimate good day and the ultimate bad day. Both of them even make cameos in Wrong Star, as Forever Nine and Wrong Star do have some sort of crossroads. The ultimate bad day is hinted to in Paddling Over Nothing and the ultimate good day is hinted to in From The Bottom Of A Broken…Uh?!.

There’s no alcohol involved here, for those of you who see it in everything and are probably the same people who saw sex in From The Bottom Of A Broken…Uh?!. The phrase “streets getting drunk” is from a cheesy 80s rock song by a legendary ex-YU band. Basically, the singer is thinking of a girl he likes and the streets are getting drunk, stars are itching like pimples…in other words, he’s nervous and lacking sense of orientation. I used to think it was just a saying and then one night I got really excited about an experience I’d just had and the streets got drunk! I could swear that the corner I eventually found wasn’t there when I passed by the place it was at 30 minutes earlier.

Zmaj među krovovima

Takvih dana nema mnogo.

Jednom je bio tornado u Londonu.
Takvih dana nema mnogo.

Jednom sam pila “popij me”
i uspela da ne uzmem previše “pojedi me”.
Takvih dana nema mnogo.

Jednom sam videla otisak jednonogog psa.
Tog dana sam videla i zmaja među krovovima.
Tog dana sam videla srce u lutki na navijanje.
Takvih dana nema mnogo.

Jednom nisam mogla da idem pravo pa desno,
shvatila da se ulice stvarno napijaju.
tog dana sam otkrila hladne hamburgere
i više ih se nikad nisam lišila.
Takvih dana nema mnogo.

Premotaj.

Takvih dana nema mnogo.

Jednom je bio tornado u Londonu…

_______________________________

Dragon Amongst The Rooftops

There aren’t many days like that.

Once, there was a tornado in London.
There aren’t many days like that.

Once, I drunk some of “drink me”
And managed not to have too much of “eat me”.
There aren’t many days like that.

Once, I saw paw prints of an one-legged dog.
That day I also saw a dragon amongst rooftops.
That day I saw a heart inside of a wind-up doll.
There aren’t many days like that.

Once, I couldn’t go straight and turn right,
I realised that streets really get drunk,
That day I discovered how good cold hamburgers are.
There aren’t many days like that.

Rewind.

There aren’t many days like that.

Once, there was a tornado in London…

The title really says it all, so read on. ^_^

Three days ago, on a bus ride to my friend’s place in the middle of a traffic jam. And I was feeling strangely talkative, to the point where I heard someone in the back, referring to me, half-loud: “Where is the power switch on her? How do you turn her off?” Should’ve turned around and told them that many have asked that question before, but nobody managed to find the answer.

I was first entertained by a cute baby who kept on asking “Where? Where?” and trying to grab people’s mobile phones and then she calmed down when she watched this video clip on my iPod. At the same time, I realised that my entire set of Courage The Cowardly Dog episodes refuses to play, yet it takes up most of my video space.

Then I talked to one old lady, about how cute the baby was. And then came the switch on/off moment. I looked at the public transportation ticket I’d just ticked and thought what to do with it. There was space for 4-5 lines of written text on its blank back side. And, even though I always carry a notebook with me, I thought it would be a challenge to write a three-line p..m. It worked out. I’m never good with super-short forms, but it worked out.

Pesma sa karte za prevoz

Svaka bajka ima praznu stranicu,
na kojoj bi inače bio nesrećni kraj.
Možda je to i ova, znaj.

P..m From A Public Transport Ticket

Every fairy-tale’s got an empty page,
Where there would otherwise be a sad ending.
Maybe this one does too, be aware of it.

This is another p..m with time shifting and I don’t think it shifts that much in any other p..m in the series. Characters’ ages are changing constantly, the narrator is often speaking from a toddler perspective and then suddenly being adult again, only to drift into the crib the next moment.

The other protagonist in this one is the flower that bites who was a bunny who was a cloud who was this and that is now a moody angel. Once again, he/she/it is being horribly inappropriate. I got inspiration from a Benny Hill sketch I can’t find the name for, but the Serbian version was translated to “Protetički dečak (Prosthetic Boy)” and there was a boy who would throw a lolly and demolish a building.

The name? Outside of the brackets, it should make sense. Inside of the brackets? If something’s not really April and not really June, how do you name it? May?. But I just cannot go without giving poor June that doesn’t even look like one right now its credit. So, may it be June.

Universal meaning, outisde of the Wrong Star realm? Hmmm…religious people blaming everything on secular people, when it’s most likely their fault? In case you can figure this one out, it’s too grotesque, but mom and dad says that back in the days, there were comments towards a certain country that no longer exists, stating that “they got it because they didn’t appreciate God”. Ha. Ha. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Then why did everyone else get it, too?

I started writing this in bed on the night between 02nd and 03rd June. The original version is a bit messy when translated to English, this second version is stronger, better and more articulate.

“Troublemaker” is a poor word to replace South-Slavonic “mutivoda”. Mutivoda would basically be the one blurring the waters, making them muddy and unhealthy. I don’t know the right word in English. If anyone can help, I’ll fix it.

Treći anđeo (Junska pesma)

And who was it that made me make a wish?
I wished to see real stars above me someday
And I wished them to be so, so, so, so and so.
If only I knew what kind of a star just fell,
If only I wasn’t sound asleep in my crib,
If only, from all of it, I didn’t get you.

Music listened throughout writing this one:
John Frusciante – “Water”
Ultravox – “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” (cliché, I know)
Dune – “Dark Side Of The Moon”
Fabrizio de André – “Via della croce”
Melanie C – “Soul Boy”
Céline Dion – “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi”

An unusual observation before I start. I can’t stand the way titles are written in English. Why is every word capitalised? It’s almost as annoying as typing a space before ! or ? in French. It makes text look ugly.

In every film, there’s a scene that’s over the top. On every music album, there’s a song that’s over the top. In this upcoming poetry book, this is the p..m that’s over the top. I wanted something more dynamic than Mala Distordiae and Can’t Make Me Howl.

When so many viewpoints of an observation are available, there’s got to be a moment where they all shift into a senseless vortex, into a total snafu that will make about as much sense as Bonnie Tyler’s video for Total Eclipse Of The Heart. This is that particular moment.

Undead trees? Why not. A moody flower? Why not. Monster birds? Why not. They’re all an interesting way to depict how innocent situations can turn into something wrong out of blue. At the same time, they’re clearly over the top.

If I do end up ordering these to form some sort of a story, this one is likely to be placed before _______?.

As I assume my lurks might not know the thing my friends know, so I thought I’d make it sure, given that I’ve been writing about strange things this year – I’ve got a straight-edge. Everything I have written comes from a perfectly sober mind. If anything makes it a bit “out there”, that’s got to be a consequence of unconnectable things I’m putting together in these p..ms, as well as 1999, which I prefer to leave out of my writing until further notice.

Cvet tako lep da ne smeš da ga dotakneš

…a flower so pretty you cannot touch,
A flower so pretty you cannot pick,
A flower so pretty it won’t open again,
Because no one should see how pretty it really is.

After a little break, here’s a Wrong Star p..m again. That probably means I’m not done and that there still are a couple of motifs to explore. Certain country’s Eurovision entry inspired me a lot, too. Well, at least it made to the top 10.

The title of this one was taken from one of my favourite entertainers of all times, Dragoljub Ljubičić – “Mićko”. He used it in his book “National Park Serbia – part 2 – Half-end of the Half-world”. I came accross that phrase and thought how it could be applied to things that have nothing to do with what Mićko had in mind. And it has nothing to do with Serbia either. Still, I have to credit him for this title. I hope he’s not going to have a problem with it.

Just like Up On The Roof, this is like a toxic, yet charming “conversation”. You know, “conversations” are the best way of telling people what’s wrong, if anything’s wrong, if something’s actually right et cetera. That’s the meow-meow way of solving a problem.

I could’ve done this in colours, but there’s one huge problem. I see the characters as the shades of the same colour! Boo. >_< If I end up making that PDF version of the book in the end, one of the characters might be represented with a more articulate font and the other in a bit messy way. Wait a sec, I imagine both of them to be a bit messy. Let's stop right here.

Temporary solution in the case of this particular p..m: whenever there's a new paragraph, the characters are switching.

The story? At first, it appears that a strange, lone leader is raising goons to send them out of whatever is the place that leader's governing. The other group of goons appears not to want to leave and they want to be controlled and serve. Unfortunately, they have coome along with someone who does not appear to be a goon and who's testing the leader's patience, albeit not for the sake of getting them annoyed - just because they fail to see the same picture, yet what they see is pleasing.

This backtalking character causes the leader to become self-righteous to the point when they're claiming that they're undergoing a rather impossible process of self-degradation. Of course, self-rightenousness and self-degradation don't really go hand in hand, which makes one of them untrue.

In the end, it turns out that backtalking character has actually trapped the other in a story they're writing, which they can abruptly end at any given time, which then occurs.

This one could be a vendetta. But it's not. It's just another Wrong Star p..m. Just like the most of the series, there's a 100% realistic way of reading it. How? Everything can be commercialised, including deaths, terrorist attacks, volcano erruptions and disasters. Everything can have someone making money out of it. Eventually, someone will be bitter? Did I say "bitter" again? Indeed I did!

Retrogradno-cirkularna metamorfoza

Gomile životinja se hrane na mom lešu.
Nije me briga. Ne, nije me briga.
Posle nekog vremena dobiju krila i pipke,
i kao potpuno nove odlaze u drugi svet.
Nije me briga. Ne, nije me briga.
To su moje životinje
i one zaslužuju sve najbolje
iako su malo neobične,
neobičnost je veoma lepa,
neobičnost je maltene slepa.

A ti, gde su tvoja krila?
Zar nisi, šta ono beše, neka vrsta leptira?
Zar nisi, šta ono beše, neka vrsta ptice?

Retrogradno-cirklularna metamorfoza,
lutka do daljnjeg.
Retrogradno-cirkularna metamorfoza,
ja sam gusenica!
JA SAM STVARNO SAMO GUSENICA!

Uh, u redu. I onda?

Gomila pustinjaka se i dalje vrzma ovuda.
Zašto su tu? Zašto su i dalje tu?
I dalje piju otrov i tvrde da je med,
i ti, što sama praviš med kod kuće,
koji si ti andrak, pobogu?

Prava. Istinita. A ti?

Retrogradno-cirklularna metamorfoza,
lutka do daljnjeg.
Retrogradno-cirklularna metamorfoza…
marš napolje!
ČUJEŠ? MARŠ NAPOLJE, POBOGU!
IMA DA SE TORNJAŠ, SAMO TAKO.
Možeš da mi dođeš preko mosta,
ovi mostovi padaju svakog dana,
jednom će pasti i taj tvoj.

Ako se to desi, plivaću.

Plivaćeš sa mojim RIBETINAMA?
One su nenormalne i mnogo vole meso.

Da, vole tvoje meso.
Mene ni pas s maslom ne bi pojeo.

Ovde psi ostavljaju i šest, osam tragova.

A ja sam mislila da ostavljaju…četiri.

Ovde možeš biti pojedena iza svakog drveta.

Ne sećam se da sam ikad videla drvo ljudoždera.

Ovo bi se dopalo nekome ko voli da sanjari.

E, ja volim da sanjarim, a ovo mi se ne dopada.
Ustvari, sad ću ga prekinuti.
Teraš me napolje, a ne shvataš ko ovo priča.
Mora da je bilo glupo biti sa tvoje strane.

__________________________________________

Retrograde-Circular Metamorphosis

A bunch of animals are feeding on my corpse.
I don’t care. No, I don’t care.
After some time they grow wings and tentacles
And totally new they’re leaving to another world.
I don’t care. No, I don’t care.
Those animals are my own
And they deserve all the best
Even though they’re a bit unusual
Being unusual is so very beautiful
Being unusual is almost a matter of being blind.

And you, where are your wings?
Aren’t you, what, some sort of a butterfly?
Aren’t you, what, some sort of a bird?

Retrograde-circular metamorphosis,
A cocoon until further notice.
Retrograde-circular metamorphosis,
I’m a caterpillar
I REALLY ONLY AM A CATEPILLAR!

Uh, all right. And then?

A bunch of scavengers is still messing around.
Why are they here? Why are they still here?
They’re still drinking poison and claiming it’s honey,
And you, making your own honey at home,
What exactly in the heaven’s name are you?

Real. Truthful. And you?

Retrograde-circular metamorphosis,
A cocoon until further notice.
Retrograde-circular metamorphosis…
Get out of here!
HEARD THAT, GET OUTU OF HERE, DAMN YOU!
YOU’LL NOW GET OUT JUST LIKE THAT.
You can cross a bridge to me,
These bridges are falling every day,
Someday, yours will fall down too.

If that happens, I shall swim.

You’ll swim with my BIG FISH?
They’re abnormal and they really like meat.

Yes, your meat.
Nobody’s really in for eating mine.

Here dogs leave six to eight paw marks.

Funny, I’d think they leave…four.

Here you can get eaten behind any tree.

I don’t recall trees that eat people.

Someone who loves to dream would like this.

Eh, I like to dream and I don’t like this.
As a matter of a fact, I’ll stop it right now.
You’re chasing me out, not understanding who is telling the story.
It must be really stupid to be on that other side.