THE LABELERS

Do you see

how they have labeled us

and divided us?

They say: you are a Doctor,

and you – a Professor!

You are a Peasant,

and you – an Auto Mechanic!

You are a Journalist,

and you – a Poet!

What do you,

Gentlemen Labelers,

know about who I am?

Language is a marvel!

How conveniently it governs our consciousness.

Our mind is like an overpacked suitcase of concepts

that we carry with us wherever we go.

If only it were always useful!

How often we pull out words like laundry,

yet not a single one truly fits us.

We dress ourselves in that laundry

so that we will not remain naked.

For what would we do then?

Naked, improper,

unacceptable before the „world”.

Oh God, what misery.

You see, without words

we cannot enter this world of ours.

Just as we must put on some clothing,

so we clothe ourselves in words,

yet we often do not know how to choose them well.

So we lean on other people’s words,

on other people’s thoughts,

on knowledge someone else has gathered for us.

It would be better for all of us

to handle concepts

a little more precisely and honestly.

It would be more pleasant,

and more honorable,

to remain silent about what we do not know.

But who cares anymore

about meaning and truth?

They say – that is for Philosophers.

We are Ordinary People.

The Philosopher carefully opens his suitcase

and even more carefully chooses his clothes,

while the Ordinary man simply throws things around as best as he can.

And then, like a parrot,

we repeat the same phrase countless times:

Where is this world heading?

Milena Pčinjski, MA – Biography

Milena Pčinjski (Милена Пчињски) was born on October 28, 1986, in Prokuplje, Republic of Serbia, and currently resides in Ćuprija. She holds a master’s degree in English Language and Literature. She is recognized as an international poet who writes in both Serbian and English. Her poetry has been published in numerous collections and anthologies of contemporary Serbian literature, as well as in international and online poetry compilations. Her poems have been translated into English, Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, Bengali, and Finnish.

She is a member of several book clubs in Serbia and regularly participates in literary events and poetry competitions. In 2025, she published her poetry collection Verses Imprisoned (Заробљени стихови). She works as an online English professor and also serves as a translator and editor for Area Felix, an international Serbian e-magazine dedicated to creative literature and culture. Additionally, she is a proofreader for the Association of Writers –SKOR, where she also serves as the President for the Pomoravlje Region.

Her collection Verses Imprisoned was awarded the Honorary Silver Diploma by the Orthodox Cultural and Artistic Almanac Arina NN in Nizhny Novgorod in 2025.

Milena is an honorary member of the International Advisory Board of the Academy of Farsala in Greece, as well as of the Global Literary Society, where she received a Certificate of Appreciation for „her excellent contribution to the Global Movement of Positive Literature” from Bhagirath Choudhary, the founder of the organization. She is currently preparing her second poetry collection.