2.

to show the poles of my versatility

pokazać bieguny mojej wszechstronności

It was the darkest moment before the dawn.

The plane was still coughing

Samolot wciąż kaszlał

When it crashed, three deep gashes were made in the earth.

Its wings were now sawn-off arms.

No more flapping. Not for this metallic little bird.

Sometimes I arrive too early. I rush, and some people cling longer to life than expected.

A boy arrived first, with cluttered breath and what appeared to be a toolbox.

With great trepidation, he approached the cockpit and watched the pilot, gauging if he was alive, at which point, he still was.

They can't make a diagnosis without gauging the blood pressure within her heart.

Nie mogą postawić diagnozy bez zmierzenia ciśnienia krwi w sercu.

She was panting.

He reached in through the torn windshield and placed it on the pilot’s chest.

He reached in through the torn windshield and placed it on the pilot’s chest.

The smiling bear sat huddled among the crowded wreckage of the man and the blood.

I walked in, loosened his soul, and carried it gently away.

All that was left was the body, the dwindling smell of smoke, and the smiling teddy bear.

A ruffled uniform.

His eyes were cold and brown—like coffee stains—and the last scrawl from above formed what, to me, appeared an odd, yet familiar, shape.

It was a small concoction of disjointed hand movements, muffled sentences, and mute, self-conscious turns.

muffled sentences

stłumione zdania

self-conscious turns

świadome zwroty

He remained shrouded in his uniform as the graying light arm-wrestled the sky.

As with many of the others, when I began my journey away, there seemed a quick shadow again, a final moment of eclipse—the recognition of another soul gone.

You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies.

There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.

Earlier, kids had been playing hopscotch there, on the street that looked like oilstained pages.

The feet tapping the road.

The children-voices laughing, and the smiles like salt, but decaying fast.

The cuckoo shrieks in the radio.

The mounds are some of the greatest tourist at tractions of Krakow.

All three injectable versions can be stacked with other products for greater effectiveness.

Thousands of people piled one on top of another.

The streets were ruptured veins.

It probably had more to do with the hurled bombs, thrown down by humans hiding in the clouds.

Snowflakes of ash fell so lovelily you were tempted to stretch out your tongue to catch them, taste them. Only, they would have scorched your lips. They would have cooked your mouth.

A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her.

She was clutching at a book.

Ściskała książkę.

Also, the basement didn’t even exist anymore. It was part of the mangled landscape.

To crouch down.

I watched her awhile.

The book thief howled.

Her book was stepped on several times as the cleanup began, and although orders were given only to clear the mess of concrete, the girl’s most precious item was thrown aboard a garbage truck, at which point I was compelled.

For all these reasons, we are compelled to vote against.

I would watch the places where we intersect, and marvel at what the girl saw and how she survived.

A marvel that no one ever sees.

That is the best I can do— watch it fall into line with everything else I spectated during that time.

When I recollect her, I see a long list of colors, but it’s the three in which I saw her in the flesh that resonate the most.

Sometimes I manage to float far above those three moments.

I hang suspended, until a septic truth bleeds toward clarity.

Yes, often, I am reminded of her, and in one of my vast array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell.

Yes, often, I am reminded of her, and in one of my vast array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell.