Jelena Dinic
States of Poetry 2016 SA Podcast | 'Alterations to the little black dress' by Jelena Dinic
Thursday, 23 June 2016In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Jelena Dinic reads her poem 'Alterations to the little black dress' which features in the 2016 South Australian anthology.
... (read more)States of Poetry 2016 SA Podcast | 'Handbag' by Jelena Dinic
Thursday, 23 June 2016In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Jelena Dinic reads her poem 'Handbag' which features in the 2016 South Australian anthology.
... (read more)States of Poetry 2016 SA Podcast | 'Babysitting' by Jelena Dinic
Thursday, 23 June 2016In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Jelena Dinic reads her poem 'Babysitting' which features in the 2016 South Australian anthology.
... (read more)States of Poetry 2016 SA Podcast | 'The Silence of Siskins' by Jelena Dinic
Thursday, 23 June 2016In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Jelena Dinic reads her poem 'The Silence of Siskins' which features in the 2016 South Australian anthology.
... (read more)States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Alterations to the little black dress' by Jelena Dinic
A little pin-up
three fingers
above the knees.
Behind the curtain
a dress-up game –
pretty things come undone.
He chalks lines
on raw stitches.
I catwalk.
My body fits the timeless black.
'You can live in it, or die'
smile the lips full of needles.
Do I look a little dead
with black fabric
on bone-pale flesh?
States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'The Silence of Siskins' by Jelena Dinic
for my grandfather
He circles my arrival
on the calendar.
It is late November
and it doesn't snow.
A wooden pallet
hardens his bed.
He dreams of grandmother.
He doesn't want new dreams.
Two siskins in cages –
their song frozen like the air
that other November
when she lost her heart
c ...
States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Babysitting' by Jelena Dinic
for Mia
I wore my grandmother's clothes
and sat on her doorstep.
Monday to Friday.
She talked.
I lied.
'I'll teach you how to write,' I said
pretending I could
hold a pen.
'Mouse will eat your ears,' she smiled.
At night we leaned on pillows
watched TV with subtitles.
I made up foreign words.
I tol ...
States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Handbag' by Jelena Dinic
after Vasko Popa
Always ready to leave
leaving
each time further
from the whispers
of the grass.
She has forgotten
her death,
the calf she once was.
Curled around an arm
a new name sewn
into her mouth
she's been there, done that.
A tramp, living beyond
the stitches of life.
&n ...
States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Back' by Jelena Dinic
I walk through my hometown
as an uninvited guest.
Divorced
from communism
the old street has taken back
its maiden name.
I follow the steps of a lost child
watching myself
from the curtains
of memory's windows.
The doors of St Nicholas church
are rusty but open.
Inside familiar faces
and a sign
Buy candle ...
States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | About Jelena Dinic
Jelena Dinic arrived in Australia in 1993 during the collapse of Yugoslavia. She writes in Serbian and in English. In 2014 she was a resident at the Eleanor Dark Foundation, Varuna Writers' Retreat in the Blue Mounta ...