CLASSIFIEDS
WHOEVER'S found out what
location
compassion (heart's imagination)
can be contacted at these
days,
is herewith urged to name the place;
and sing about it in full
voice,
and dance like crazy and rejoice
beneath the frail birch that
appears
to be upon the verge of tears.
I TEACH silence
in all
languages
through intensive examination of:
the starry sky,
the
Sinanthropus' jaws,
a grasshopper's hop,
an infant's
fingernails,
plankton,
a snowflake.
I RESTORE lost love.
Act
now! Special offer!
You lie on last year's grass
bathed in sunlight to the
chin
while winds of summers past
caress your hair and seem
to lead you
in a dance.
For further details, write: "Dream."
WANTED: someone to
mourn
the elderly who die
alone in old folks' homes.
Applicants, don't
send forms
or birth certificates.
All papers will be torn,
no receipts
will be issued
at this or later dates.
FOR PROMISES made by my
spouse,
who's tricked so many with his sweet
colors and fragrances and
sounds -
dogs barking, guitars in the streets -
into believing that they
still
might conquer loneliness and fright,
I cannot be responsible.
Mr.
Day's widow, Mrs. Night.
~ Wislawa Szymborska
~
(Poems New and Collected
1957-1997,
trans. by S. Baranczak and C.
Cavanagh)
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