Poems by Jakob Zaaiman on Medium

Angela d’Klaire

Contemporary poetry

(Artwork by Jakob Zaaiman)

I remember this guy once telling us –
very casually — about the brutality that
went with being a conscript in the
Yugoslav army; like taking part in
gang rapes and murder, and torturing
people to death; maybe smashing
their faces in with clubs and rifle butts,
so sadistic violence everywhere
all the time and the daily norm;
basically he was letting me know
he didn’t need lessons in life,
and that just maybe, call it
probably definitely
maybe, I did.

Sure he was kind of right. Because
you have to respect savagery, and
systematic cruelty, before you
then have to leave them alone,
even if you don’t want to.
And who wants to, once a kind
of elemental fascination has
set itself in.