Tuesday, 23 December 2025

Four Poems by Michał Kaczmarek







The boy 

 

mature enough to feel 

but not mature enough  

to take the blows 

when alcohol causes grudges 

against the wife who is your mother 

and against you when you say 

using your young imperfect tongue 

daddy please 

daddy please 

 

an example of perfidy 

a four-year-old who has no idea 

how to use cynicism to defend 

look at you 

your father didn’t give a bloody penny 

 

no motion 

dripping saliva  

a pathetic picture of being powerless 

the snail crushed on purpose 

the legs torn out of insects 

give hope that he will improve 

his methods of fighting off aggression 

and will become one of us 

 

 

The most popular 

 

the girl jumps out the window 

on the tenth floor 

jeans 

light sweater 

white sneakers 

well groomed hair 

 

I can see as much 

in an amateur video 

different is the picture of deep sadness 

when she passes her waste in the bed 

does not take care of the appearance 

stares at the wall 

 

a usual day 

breakfast 

make-up 

a radio audition 

 

the man who weighed the cabbage 

changes paper in the cash register 

a bus splashed the woman 

who greeted her yesterday 

 

a failed attempt  

Peter help 

won’t hold it 

 

she climbs  

falls 

climbs again 

comes off 

 

the video ends 

with scream 

a vague image 

 

a thirteen-year-old boy 

in an empty flat and dim light 

touches the cold 

 

 

The youngest life 

 

it threw teddy bears all over the room 

without any reason but persistently 

it was carrying the toys form one place to another 

from the pram to the coffee table 

from the coffee table to the chest of drawers 

 

it was standing on its legs 

falling on its bottom 

showing its teeth 

 

removing the bowel is not a disaster 

you’ll have a bag 

you’ll be fine 

 

the death too weak to be fulfilled 

was looking through the window 

it was snowing 

 

the youngest life saw her 

gasped 

put its hands up 

and focused on the interactive board 

with a handle a wire a plug in a socket 

 

 

Mathematics 

 

we were lucky 

we arrived ten minutes after it happened 

 

the fate did not want to involve  

anyone more than required 

by the multiplication table  

 

the firefighters looked vague from a distance 

they gave us instructions 

which did not make us change our plans 

we passed 

 

mathematics was helpless 

we did not feel guilty 

about the excessive number of beneficial circumstances 

 

we survived 

like blind animals 

touched by a noun 

but an abstract noun







Michał Kaczmarek (1986) was born and raised in Głogów, Poland. He graduated from the University of Wrocław (Faculty of Philology, English Department). He is an office worker and a tutor. His poems have been published in Polish literary magazines such as Afront, artPAPIER, eleWator, Migotania, Odra, Pro Libris, Protokół Kulturalny, Śląsk, Tlen Literacki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

No comments:

Post a Comment