TEODOZJA ŚWIDERSKA

 

Count For Today

 

Tomorrow is overrated

Do not believe the words – from tomorrow for free

though the market doesn’t lie

Nobody will see tomorrow

If you live to see next morning

– today will wake you up

and it may tell you to forget

about the plans of yesterday

 

You only live today

and you do not die tomorrow

Tomorrow cannot be seen by anybody

even if they looked out the window

went onto the road

with the heart looked out to welcome

 

Do not go away with the words – see you tomorrow

just say – I will be back soon

It will be easier like that

not waiting / not living even to see

the end of the world

 

Two Worlds

 

Two worlds collide each day

The one behind the window opens more daringly

mine hides inside me from the morning

 

The first impression counts –

eleven seconds is enough –

a glance through the windowpane

the possibility of coexistence test

 

It already knows – scanned everything through

it hurts the eyes like the bitter truth

Unsure of the day I avoid its glances

defenseless like a patient in pajamas

I stick my face out of the window –

Strike – oh fate

 

And it can affect

with a muslin whiff –

a breath of the sky in my lungs

 

I have two worlds with you all – I sigh

We give a chance each other again

 

Breakages

 

In a split second

a porcelain rarity may break –

a priceless fragility will crack ‒

cup ‒ amphora ‒ heart

or life ‒ whole till now

will smash into pieces

 

It’s hard to glue the bygone from scraps

with no signs of scarring

bear the scratches of destinies

Cause what a scar is if not a sign

of a wound deep or shallow

like a memory of it

 

You need time to get used to scars

to grow stronger with their truth

like with the kintsugi gold

a chance for the broken ones ‒

converting a stigma into beauty

even if you marveled at sudden raptures

 

You may survive the cracks without injury

ennobled

live ‒ from now on ‒ differently

 

Translation By Anna Maria Stępień

 

TEODOZJA ŚWIDERSKA

 

TEODOZJA ŚWIDERSKA: She is a graduate of Polish philology and postgraduate psychology studies from the University of Opole. Author of four books of poetry. She has published her poems in several dozen anthologies (including international ones) and in literary magazines. She belongs to the (ex.) Polish Writers' Union, Association of Polish Authors in Warsaw. She lives in Opole (Poland).