Anja Mujić
Belgrade
I am the smallest among bodies lining the floor. The first breath of morning swells, magenta bruises
forming on the window glass. Around me the rhythm of dreams alternates; fruitless branches
swaying inside the room’s blueish walls greyed with lack of light, as if foreshadowing. To some, we
are in the White City. To others, we are playing house in the hornet’s nest. To me, we are whatever
war makes of us, our country slowly unstitching itself from itself and us from it. The frenzied arms
of the wooden conductor continue to flail inside the walls, shadowed hands striking air, the wail of
cut gourds ricocheting through the emptiness, as if to harness it. Years from now, in the wilderness
of a distant country, I’ll meet a lone fawn frozen in the clearing, the air pierced thin with fear
between us, and understand everything. Which is to say, we all survive by playing our parts. Under
my mattress copper threads weave meridians in the carpet; the sea we’ve been traversing stitching
itself to the room’s edge and soon, they say, to another place. Before the fight broke out, my mother
had been reading me a story. She said, we’ll fly this time, so high baby, like birds migrating, our
wingspans casting the sky into anything we want. The first breath of Spring swells magenta at her
temple, like a sunset. I want to hear again about Gulliver washing up on Lilliput, bewildered and
motionless, but I can’t remember anything before the pages burned. Somewhere, in that same
distance, curled limbs imprint a meadow, the smallest among bodies lining the floor.
“This piece was inspired by one of my earliest memories, shaped by war, displacement and its consequences, echoes that I still feel in my life and work today. It is the opening of my new collection Blue Mother, out with Leschenault Press in 2026.” —Anja Mujić
Anja Mujić is a Bosnian/Australian writer, dance artist, musician, and yoga/meditation facilitator currently based in Berlin. Her work has appeared in the short list of the Born Writers Award 2022, publications including Humana Obscura, TravelMag, Visual Verse Anthology, Dancehouse Diaries and Be In The Know Berlin, as well as commissioned for exhibition, theatre, performance and film. Her first collection of poems, love letters to places... (Leschenault Press 2022), was a number 1 best seller in its pre order period and has since been released in kindle and audiobook forms. Her second collection Blue Mother is due for release in 2026.