Sarajevo Roses

The Sarajevo rose of the book's title--a mortar crater filled with red resin, in remembrance--is less an overarching symbol here than one example of the past inscribed upon the present--culturally in our architecture, individually on our bodies--and of the instinct to preserve wounds as a mark of respect, or warning. Surrounded by the war-shaped, memorial landscapes of Europe, the poet is faced by those smaller wars and memorials one carries within, marks left by lovers, friends, relations, and past selves.