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rubella, misha by Martyna Buliżańska
(Translated from Polish by Peter Burzynski)

January 1, 2018 Contributed By: Martyna Buliżańska, Peter Burzyński

(sometimes I still write to Twiggy)

Misha, if you only saw how dad was hanging up coats yesterday—
it was June, we pitted cherries and mother had scratches around her mouth.
hands inside her skirt swelled like eyes, though their eyelids could not
gather the mold in the bedroom—a train’s sleeping car, gently rocking on the tracks.

/It turns out that I had freckles, dad said that he needed someplace to put out his cigarettes.
on cool Sundays the rosy eczema of his smoke was somehow slower/

Misha, take me to Jerusalem
—I don’t think Jesus asks, who are we having for dinner tonight, Valla?

 

 

roza dma, misza

(czasem jeszcze pisuję do Twiggy)

gdybyś wczoraj widział, jak ojciec wieszał płaszcze, Misza,
czerwiec był, drylowałyśmy wiśnie i matka miała na ustach zadrapania.
dłonie w spódnicy spuchły jak oczy, tylko że powieki nie potrafią
zgarniać pleśni w sypialnianym, gdy kołysze.

/przybyło mi piegów na twarzy, ojciec mówił, że gdzieś musi gasić cygarety.
w chłodne niedziele egzemowaty dym uchodzi wolniej/

Misza, zabierz mnie do Jeruszalaim
—chyba Jezus nie pyta, kto dziś jest na obiad, Wala?

 

 

 

Return to table of contents for Issue 12 Winter 2018.

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Filed Under: Translation Posted On: January 1, 2018

Further Reading

ALEXANDRIA by Theodore Worozbyt

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by Julia Halprin Jackson

There were two beds in Little’s room. Put back to back they were as long as his father was tall. The walls were covered in a light floral print.

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Answer the call of the flute—
the lost impulse of the absent poets,
the incomplete painting, the unrained cloud,
the prophecy of an upcoming confession—

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