wendy’s martyrdom
there is nothing in the present tense
blue surfaces in the bathroom remember
better than the banana ceiling at my head’s opening
when my eyes see wendy
she takes off her childhood walks
under my skin like into the shower
there is no
martyrdom in the present tense
among props amnesia continues
sunset
when
I open my eyes the sun is still shining,
a
small rusty orb nearing evening;
I
am turning it in my thoughts like a hot potato,
it
is setting too fast behind the thin line of eyelids.
the
horizon fills with blood. I can’t not look.
I
am touching it with my sight: it is pulsing. I smile a little.
with
all my strength I’m trying to feel less sad.
I
am rubbing eyelids with my fingers and I don’t have
reluctance
in me, only astonishment.
there’s
something behind this line. there’s something in this color.
Note on the poems:
The
poem “Peiperettes”, whose original title “Peiperosy” references the name of
Polish avant-garde poet Tadeusz Peiper, was first published in the literary
magazine Meble 5 (2002) under the
pseudonym Mera de Cyrano. Poems “wendy’s martyrdom” and “sunset” come from the poet’s
2006 collection psychodelicje.
Maria Cyranowicz (b. 1974)—Polish poet, literary
critic, teacher, and editor. In 1999 she received the Ludwik Fryde Award for
Young Critics. Member of the Warsaw-based group of poets whose work has been
associated with language-oriented poetic practices known as
"neolingwizm". Author of five books: neutralizacje (Biblioteka
Frondy, 1997), i magii nacja (Zielona Sowa, 2001), piaty
element to fiksja (Staromiejski Dom Kultury, 2004), psychodelicje (Staromiejski
Dom Kultury, 2006), den.presja (Fundacja Mammal, 2009).
Co-editor of two anthologies: Gada !Zabic? Pa(n)tologia neolingwizmu (Staromiejski
Dom Kultury, 2005, with Pawel Koziol) and Solistki. Antologia poezji
kobiet (1989-2009) (Staromiejski Dom Kultury, 2009, with Joanna
Mueller and Justyna Radczynska). Co-editor and contributor to two literary
journals Meble (now defunct) and Wakat/Notoria. Her
new poems have recently appeared in Strefa wolna. Wiersze przeciwko
nienawiści i homofobii (Outside the Box, 2019)
and Queer. Dezorientacje. Antologia Polskiej Literatury Queer. Eds.
Alessandro Amenta, Tomasz Kalisciak, Blazej Warkocki (Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej,
2021). Translations of her poems are forthcoming in Modern Poetry in
Translation and AzonaL. Her new poetry collection machinacje is
forthcoming this year. She lives in Warsaw.
Malgorzata Myk (b. 1975) teaches North American Literature and
Culture at Lodz University, Poland. Author of the monograph Upping the Ante of the Real: Speculative
Poetics of Leslie Scalapino (Peter Lang, 2019). Co-editor of the two
volumes: Theory That Matters: What
Practice After Theory and the Polish
Journal for American Studies Special Issue on Innovation in Contemporary
American Poetry. The Kosciuszko Foundation Fellow in the academic year
2017/18 (UCSD). Myk studied American literature and gender studies at the
Department of English, University of Orono, Maine, where she also worked for
the National Poetry Foundation (University of Orono, Maine) as an Editorial
Assistant of the journal Paideuma:
Studies in American and British Modernism. She currently serves as the
Co-Editor-in-Chief and Content Editor of Text
Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, published by Lodz
University Press. She has translated into Polish such North American authors as
Leslie Scalapino, Lisa Robertson, and Kevin Davies. Her most recent translations
include E. Tracy Grinnell’s poetry, published
in Odmiany Łapania Tchu: Pięć Amerykańskich Głosów (featuring translations
of Don Mee Choi, Sarah Mangold, Tyrone Williams, and E. Tracy Grinnell’s work)
(Dom Literatury 2022). She lives in Warsaw.
