Milica Mijatović

In America, I learn about satisfaction

By the history section of the local library,
I watch as a man rubs his calloused foot
on the brick wall. The books behind him
flinch as his dead skin cells float to the dirty
beige floor. His toes are hairy, and his nails
are small. His feet are another man’s hands,
firmly shaking the grooves of the wall.
He rubs with determined precision, rubs and rubs
until the callouses are long gone, rubs some more
through his heel and ankle, rubs until his entire
left leg is erased, and rubbing still, he turns
his head to find me there, shaking my foot
to the steady sound of his crumbling.

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Milica Mijatović is a Serb poet and translator. Born in Brčko, Bosnia and Hercegovina, she relocated to the United States where she earned a BA in Creative Writing and English Literature from Capital University. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University and is a recipient of a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Rattle, Salamander, Plume, The Louisville Review, Poet Lore, Collateral, Santa Clara Review and elsewhere. Her chapbook, War Food, won the Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition and will be published by Southword Editions in May 2023. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and she serves as Assistant Poetry Editor for Consequence.