‘Aftermath in Polish”

When we got the brand new state allocation apartment

There was a meadow vis-a-vis

with few old ruined suburban houses

the meadow was enchanted and it belonged to the butterflies

but the houses were full of shattered glass

you could still find there some before war lost treasures

a fake silver napkin holder, a piece of alabaster

 or a better half of a broken oven tile or even,

if you were extremely lucky,

a stylish

orangeade bottle with long, elegant neck.

Now, there is no meadow, there is a concrete block and Lidl supermarket

     where you can get nice products brought to you by your former enemies.

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Christmas Borsch

At the Christmas table my father in law

quotes Marx and says that Lenin was a righteous fellow

I think he says it for me to hear it

but I don’t know

At the Christmas table my mother in law

never talks about politics

and is very devoted to catholic faith

but turns the blind ear to everything

as long as it pays

I sit at this Christmas table

eating their borsch

and feeling quite stupid and dumb

while thinking about my atheist aunt

who was rotting in communist prison

for rejecting the pravda’s of Lenin and Marx

My father in law

is sitting next to me and I don’t know why on my right

again quoting Engels and Marx

and I am eating this salty borsch

thinking about my grandpa’s running away from the Soviet’s hands

I want to get up

but my mother in law

pours into my plate just a little more

of her

sour Christmas borsch.

Schizoid Song

I am calling my soul back

but she is offended

and she doesn’t answer me

should I go and chase her?

or scare her out of me forever?

is she still alive?

should I try to choke her somewhere in deep water

or go and cross a killing chasm

with her on my arm?

she is such a weakling

quieter and quieter

she just doesn’t speak

she just silently exists

when all the others talk

she disappears.