The sun as if in August looks away from gathered crowd.
You face the burning salt in hopes the spring will blossom sooner.
You too have aching in your arms as your heart knows bravely of its ending.
We lift the days from grounded soil as layered in our pride.
Shoulders high we make the step, eager and in yearning
our bodies smell of love in its decay, we now gaze towards
the rocks that harmed our childhood. We have forgotten who they were
and why we bear the wounds of those abandoned.
Nothing cures our anger but our heart
with time the poems flood our bodies –
Jelena Lasan is a poet, playwright, graphic designer, and publisher from Slovenia. She published her first poetry collection, *Umomo*, in 2009 through the publishing house Aleph. Since then, she has been working as a publisher and graphic designer. She co-wrote and illustrated a children’s book titled *KALARU* and has also been writing plays. After a long pause from publishing poetry, five of her new poems from the upcoming collection *Amplitude* were published in the Slovenian literary magazine *LudLiteratura* (January/February 2025).
Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1980, Jelena studied microbiology before moving to London. She later returned to Slovenia, where she published her first poetry collection and established a small print-on-demand publishing house called Ekslibris.