Dragica RAJČIC

Dragica Rajcic (poet, journalist, playwright; Switzerland) was born in Croatia and emigrated to Switzerland in 1978; returning in 1988, she fled back to Switzerland in 1991.  A founder of Glas Kastela, a newspaper in Croatia, Rajcic has also published five books of poems, including Post Bellum (2000) and Buch von Glück (2004), and two plays:  [‘A Bit of Cleanliness’]  has been performed in Germany and Switzerland.  Her literary awards include the Chamisso Scholarship and the Meran Poetry Prize.


Zürich 1 29th

September 2001

World crash America
Newspaper letters
No asylum for eyes
Eat me drink me ask me say
nothing look across come closer
So too and ever more every word
from your mouth will end never heard
in those eyes bright dark and still more
I see across to the wall to the table so easily
happy so unhappy cannot eat
and just like that from now on what about
everything that was never touched like this

Who can tell me today
What did we talk about
Two starry hours
central European time

The war has ended.
The brother develops
Pictures in the dark.
The brother teaches the dog who escaped
to lose its fear
The mother awakens in the night
frightened in silence

The father sells stories
from yesterday and today
rich in victory.

the women have no‐one to wait for

The son plays hands up.
The daughter wraps up a stone
and in case it gets sad
she draws it a tear.



Expulsion

my brother soldier found
the broken photo of his friend in the bedroom
and later
while shooting hid
his eyes in his trouser pocket.


what one deserves

love
child
house
dog
tree
sun
rain
grave

love above the grave
child in the rain
dog in the sun
house without tree
the grave
empty