Salt With Fire Poem by Justyna Bargielska

for Jurek

Do you know how you feel? Some discs
get recorded louder than other discs,
that's just how it is, but can you hear your voice?
I can't hear mine though I can hear yours.

Unless I'm at the bottom of an ocean. But not one of today's
just the one my son talks of sadly, pointing
to the school playground - once
all this was water, those stupid continents
divided it. Then he says, Mama
do you remember when we didn't need eyes?

Little man, how could I forget,
of the thousand adventures of my immortal soul
that was the best.

Translation: Maria Jastrzębska