THE OTHER WORLD
(Anna Kamienska)

I don't believe in the other world

but also I don't believe in this world
unless it is pierced by light

I believe in the body of a woman
hit by a car in the street

I believe in bodies
stopped in a hurry
in a gesture in mid-pursuit
as something long-expected
was about to happen
as if in an instant
sense was to lift up
its finger

I believe in a blind eye
in a deaf ear
in a lame foot
in a crease at the temple
in red fire on the cheek

I believe in bodies lying
in the trust of sleep
in the patience of old age
in the weakness of the unborn

I believe in a hair from the dead
left on a brown beret

I believe that brilliance
is multiplied miraculously
onto all things

Even the May bug
which fumbles about on its back
helpless as a little puppy

I believe that the rain
stitches sky to earth
and with the rain the angels
visibly descend
like winged frogs

I don't believe in this world
empty
like a railway station before dawn
when all the trains have gone
to the other world

The world is one
especially when it wakes up in dew
and the Lord walks about
among the bushes
of animal and human dreams

(translated by Tomasz P. Krzeszowski & Desmond Graham)