Poetry by Monika Messer

      Dane CC




Song for Zora

We slept in vans and jumped in the river and some of us never emerged from the water 

And some of us are still swimming

And some of us are still sleeping on the grassy banks

And that is where we keep your memory 

Sparkling in the sunshine dancing we were free we were the light we were the flames 

And the storms came and we raged with them and we wore blankets for dresses and we begged the tickets and we took the rides 

And some of us are still out on that highway 

And some of us are ashes ashes

Or under the ground

But their babies are still above 

And remember that time you hitchhiked from Mexico just to see me, to see me?

And we slept out by the fire and we climbed the magnolia trees 

And we stood somber in the graveyard and I could feel my heels sink into the earth like she was pulling me down with her 

All that hair the paramedics said 

And you called but I hung up because you need both hands for mouth to mouth 

Do you remember, do you also keep it hidden deep inside you 

For the thunderstorms when you can breathe and recall the way 

The pavement would steam 

And we would spin and laugh like riots and you never ever had shoes or a coat

And now I tell no one 

Except when drinking 

And I mourn, I mourn 

But in my dreams everyone is alive and free dancing down in the field by the river 
​
Burning like bonfires in the forest but now the smoke 

It doesn’t choke  



Monika Messer is an American currently “figuring it out” somewhere in Eastern Europe. In her free time she picks flowers for Partizan gravesites and casts curses on the Sackler Family.​