The Other World
 
I don't believe in the other world
But I don't believe in this one either
unless it's pierced by light
 
I believe in a woman's body
hit by a car in the street
 
I believe in bodies
stopped short in mid-rush
mid-gesture mid-push
as if what they'd been waiting for so long
were just about to begin
as if at any minute
a meaning would lift
its index finger up
 
I believe in the blind eye
the deaf ear
the crippled leg
the crow's foot
the cheek's red flame
 
I believe in bodies lying
in sleep's deep trust
I believe in age's patience
in unborn frailty
 
I believe in the one hair that a dead man
left on his brown beret
 
I believe in a brightness
miraculously increased
to shine on all things
 
Even on the beetle
that lies wriggling on its back
helpless as a pup
 
I believe that rain
stitches heaven and earth together
and that angels descend
in this rain visibly
like winged frogs
 
I don't believe in this world
empty
as a railroad station at dawn
when all the trains have left
for the beyond
 
The world is one
especially when it wakens in the dew
and the Lord takes a stroll
among the foliage
of human and animal dreams
 
~ Anna Kamienska ~
 
(Two Darknesses, trans. by T. P. Krzeszowski and D. Graham)
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
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