Mirek Bodnar 1

translated by Helen Harney

dedicated to the world poetry readings

photograph me –

for I am a poet!

fuck my brains –

for I am a poet!

take my interview and give me head –

for I am a poet!

you wanted it yourselves

I was shy and embarrassed

I blushed and looked down

but you said here, look

it's a poet!

now deal with it

I got lazy,

I was lazy and got lazier still

I used to write verse and now I write only «poems»

I have to drink and smoke even more

I have to get stoned for even more

for you said poet

feed me –

for I am a poet!

buy me a ticket from lviv to franyk –

I want to go home

for I am a poet!

sleep with me

live with me –

every poet must have enough sex and sleep

I didn't go to your fuckwittering gatherings –

I hanged alone

I had friends and a wife –

now I have readers and followers

I got on a wagon and had pockets full of grass

but you came and said look,

it's a poet!

and now i have to drink again

again I to write these fucking manifestos

to sort everything out

I have to impregnate every woman that comes my way and bring up bastards

to give you interviews and let you give me head

step up to a photo

to a marriage

to an execution by firing squad

to disrobe

drop my pants and jerk off

and with my every gesture

my every scar

my every inch of skin

to demonstrate that I am a poet

and that I know more than you

even if I don't know fuck

and show my every scar

and hone my every gesture

because you only react to this

because you say a poet

without even realizing that it all is worth shit

--- 

  

this is something like warmed up ice to touch
but perhaps not so unpleasant

languid stream of electrons

play of light on pastel wallpaper

relaxed body

somewhere in the fog lost consciousness

like a warm nauseating look from childhood

when all that you lean on – a cigarette

after all what unites us except drugs and talks?

that, what everyone can say with a look?

now we know – icons are painted from the blind

the ship has entered the port

all of the crew survived

several hostile vessels taken and boarded

so how do you say?

completely blew my memory?

but still all the dead are remembered

sunday