Stein to Smith: A Cento

Lifting belly is so kind.

This bridge cannot end as it ends

where the prison’s poplar swings

veined by the spoors of homesickness.

The low harm art

trembles in my shoe

in cathedral, museum, cloister,

at wood tables in factories.

Brilliant function of the land’s disease,

I am a lagoon woman

bound for Black Mountain: me, my razor, and my gun.

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Snežana Žabić is the author of the short story collection In a Lifetime (KOS, Serbia, 1996), the memoir Broken Records (punctum books, USA, 2016), and the poetry collection The Breath Capital (New Meridian Arts, USA, 2016). She co-authored, with Ivana Percl, the poetry collection Po(jest)zija/Po(eat)ry (SKC NS, Serbia, 2013). She edits Packingtown Review (packingtownreview.com).