Vasilka Pateras's Poems

Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 4, Number 1. May 2021. ISSN: 2581-7094



Ikona*

 --- Vasilka Pateras

rusted tin frame

mottled gold

held with tacks

she is crowned Virgin

he King

colours faded

a missing corner

weathered neglect

 

found in the old village house

once brimming with breath

now

dead wasps litter the floor

a cracked eggshell on the threshold

cobwebs in place of curtains

an archaeological dig of memory

 

this miniature icon

fragment of another time

candles lit and crosses made

wicks in wax

the calm of prayer

a filament of family piety

 

restitution of fault lines

of connection in the spiritual ether

is an object precious through it being lost

or found

 

taken from village

icon

cradled in the console of my car

keeping my secrets

guiding my path

 

 

*Translation from Macedonian

Ikona – icon

 

 

 

I have three photographs

                                                          --- Vasilka Pateras

I

a direct look at the camera

crumpled shirt

no smile

a dutiful son, reluctant soldier

conscripted into a civil war

your hold on the rifle is uneasy

unlike your brother the partisan

 

did the owl call early

did you kiss your daughter

 

II

you, your wife and baby girl

hands behind back

no smile

you

tended to the livestock, worked the fields

a chance to leave

you stayed behind for grandfather

I look into your face

a gaze is passive yet tense

what are you thinking

 

ancient observatories

measure the movement of sun and moon

but cannot predict fate

what happened that night in the snow

helping your cousin home

your disappearance

left a puzzle

of silence and tears

 

did the owl call early

did you kiss your daughter

 

III

 

late summer

sunlight nicks through the car window

I re-read my mother’s text to find you

 

‘you will pass the church of Sveti Dimitrija on the left…’

 

a villager on a bicycle stops to help

looks me in the eye

mnogu ti e teshko za Dedoti *–

 

a mass grave

your name missing from the commemorative wall

a tear on my cheek

 

did the owl call early

did you kiss your daughter

 

*Translation from Macedonian

mnogu ti e teshko – your concern for your Grandfather weighs heavily on you