Dejan Stojanovic
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The Rise of a Barbarian


There is enough fire in me to burn emptiness
Enough energy to fertilize space
Forces converge and spar within me
Clouds pass across my eyes

I am the first quasar
Destroyer of darkness
Inarticulate
Dynamite-filled reservoir

I will explode
Become a hypernova
Illuminate the sky

I take up space
Only to breathe
That is my barbaric claustrophobia

I am a conqueror
Swinging a chandelier of stars
To fill my mist
With meaning

I am a savage
Never asking questions
Never wandering
But making decisions

I reject
Knowledge that lulls me to sleepiness
Saponaceous academic tone
Sterile scholasticism
Bourgeoisie pretense

When I get tired
I sum up the tab
Open a heavenly veil
Return to myself

Become noble and silent
Rich and wise
Gray-haired

Only my hair still illuminates
The edges of galactic voyages
My children are still fertile
While my barbarity has disappeared

Now alone-
Biologically spent, a cosmic aquarium
A clock of fish still bathes within me
But, I am disappearing
I see it clearly

I will be born again I think
And start everything anew

-Dejan Stojanovic






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