why we shake

I read my first Ana Božičević poem in 2017, when I was in briefly in Croatia on a Mediterranean cruise with my parents and mistresscurvy, and was looking for Croatian poets. Her poetry has a kind of bite to it that I really love, and I've had this one on my list to post this year.

Eloquent
Silence of everyone I ever loved
This cloudy Friday evening
Spring but still cold
A smattering of new buds
Who's that
Swaddled in
The uneasy atmosphere
In silence
No chatter or pleasant surprise
The lusty rush of a weekend
With the beloved
Who's that
Sprouting now out of
The cottony silence
With silky whips
Still hanging from their little chops
Who is it straining
To pop out
Of the hardwood
Rings of time
Into the cool air
Like there's another cool world
On the other side of this one
Worth pushing
Through to or maybe
We're already there
Is that
Why we shake

—Ana Božičević (b. 1977), "Who's That," PoetryNow, 2017.