| 50 Book Pledge | Book #20: Killdeer by Phil Hall |
In honour of National Poetry Month, I present “The Story of Old Women” from Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Różewicz, translated by Joanna Trzeciak.
I like old women
ugly women
mean womenthey are the salt of the earth
they are not disgusted by
human wastethey know the flipside
of the coin
of love
of faithdictators clown around
come and go
hands stained
with human bloodold women get up at dawn
buy meat fruit bread
clean cook
stand on the street
arms folded silentold women
are immortalHamlet flails in a snare
Faust plays a base and comic role
Raskolnikov strikes with an axeold women
are indestructible
they smile knowinglygod dies
old women get up as usual
at dawn they buy bread wine fish
civilization dies
old women get up at dawn
open the windows
cart away waste
man dies
old women
wash the corpse
bury the dead
plant flowers
on gravesI like old women
ugly women
mean womenthey believe in eternal life
they are the salt of the earth
the bark of a tree
the timid eyes of animalscowardice and bravery
greatness and smallness
they see in their proper proportions
commensurate with the demands
of everyday life
their sons discover America
perish at Thermopylae
die on the crossconquer the cosmos
old women leave at dawn
for the city to buy milk bread meat
season the soup
open the windowsonly fools laugh
at old women
ugly women
mean womenbecause these beautiful women
kind women
old women
are like an ovum
a mystery devoid of mystery
a sphere that rolls onold women
are mummies
of sacred catsthey’re either small
withered
dry springs
dried fruit
or fat
round buddhasand when they die
a tear rolls down
a cheek
and joins
a smile on the face
of a young woman
