Original artwork description:

"At the Counter

the line smells of stale smoke
and the sour sweat of
people who already lost yesterday.

my sweatpants carry
those pale outlines of urine stains
like medals nobody wants to see.
the pink thrift-store hoodie
still clings to what once was spaghetti bolognese,
as if it were a memory
refusing to wash away.

we stand there
like cheap figures in a game
where no one has the dice anymore,
and wait
until the clerk
calls out our names
like a verdict.

nobody looks you in the eye,
because eyes betray hunger,
thirst,
that burning taste of shame
you swallow down
along with the free cup
of vending-machine coffee.

and yet,
somewhere between the chipped tiles
and the tired neon tubes,
the animal in me breathes softly
and thinks:
at least I’m still here,
and not dead.."

This painting is a visualization of my poem “At the Counter”.

I sell, of course, the painting and the signed poem, printed on thick high quality paper.

Painting and Poem by
Siniša Alujević - 2025

Materials used:

Gouache, Acrylic

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