A Coffee With An Imprinter Poem by Justyna Bargielska

So you've been nowhere? I have,
but not nowhere. It could've been Abkhazia,
the land of the first letters, where men
lay railways at night, upwind, and then
they're surprised. In map cases they keep a photo of that
pink with blue pin - up girl,
other sacred pictures they set against the walls.
They throw stones at pigeons, angry
that a pigeon swings and soars, and then gets
over it as if nothing happened, not worried
that it won't like itself any more.
They are shallowly in skin, then more deeply
in canvas and in the end that pin - up
shows up anyway, flicks off and there's no trace.

Translation: Katarzyna Szuster