The Giraffes

I guess the Greeks didn’t know much about neutrinos, 
millions pass right through your skull every second, 
absolutely harmless like peacekeepers in blue helmets 
cutting a hole in the fence on the edge of Potočari. 
So much for the Safe Area. 
             Yves Saint Laurent was launching a perfume in Paris. 
             At a press conference he said: 
                           Friends! If we keep straining our necks
                           we will reach the high flowers. 
                           Down with the donkeys! 
                           Long live the Giraffes!
             Who knows, maybe he was on coke at the time. 
             He was minting it: a book, a film, 
             conference after conference, 
             one of the Magi on an endless search for Christ.   
                           After the war he talked about getting the country on its feet again.  
                                         Gold and frankincense. 
                                         A contract for a mobile network. 
                                         What do you think he wanted with the baby Jesus?  
                                         The president has a phone to his ear, 
                                         He’s talking to a lawyer, something about an NGO, 
                                         a frog is getting in the way of a hydroelectric plan.   

Laurence O’Dwyer | Bank of Serbia
Contents | Mudlark No. 75 (2023)