By: Grzegorz Wróblewski

DOLL

They say that such places do not exist.
I found myself there unexpectedly.
There was someone sitting next to me who
reminded me myself from many years ago.

He wanted to fold paper into a cube or
a little doll. I came back from there quickly
and everything disappeared into space.
Neutral white suddenly surrounded me

it started to take shape. I saw
a bird that mindlessly pecked at the grass.
It looked like a featherless bird.
I then realized that I was dead.

CYCLADES

I’ve always wanted to see Cyclades figurines.
I finally went there

and I described them in detail
in notebooks.

I spent a fortune on guesthouses there,
tips and guides.

I received three business cards
from sellers of fried octopus.

When I came back and started telling my friends about it,
everyone was very surprised.

They said I was with them all this time
by the Baltic Sea.

My Cyclades couldn’t have happened.
I don’t know who I can believe.

NIGHT ON THE ISLAND

One night I heard whisper: Write a few
lines about me.

After all, you don’t exist, it’s just mine
Imagination – I was surprised and wiped
away the icy sweat from the forehead.

Whatever you write about me,
you will save me in you forever.

I am your only point of reference
and I don’t want anything more from you,
he said.

I quickly made note of this request.
And he never spoke to me again.

I didn’t find out why I should save him
forever.

NOBODY LOOKS YOU IN THE EYES

Everyone necessarily wants to save
world.

They talk about encounters with the divine
entity or become members of a syndicate.

People are walking towards the fire and selling
building plots on Mars.

And no one looks you in the eyes.

In a maze of concrete, fake lotteries
and paid love,

there’s nothing left.

Nobody looks you in the eyes.

###

Grzegorz Wróblewski was born in 1962 in Gdańsk and grew up in Warsaw. Since 1985 he has been living in Copenhagen. English translations of his work are available in Our Flying Objects (trans. Joel Leonard Katz, Rod Mengham, Malcolm Sinclair, Adam Zdrodowski, Equipage, 2007), A Marzipan Factory (trans. Adam Zdrodowski, Otoliths, 2010), Kopenhaga (trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Zephyr Press, 2013), Let’s Go Back to the Mainland (trans. Agnieszka Pokojska, Červená Barva Press, 2014), Zero Visibility (trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Phoneme Media, 2017), Dear Beloved Humans (trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Lavender/Dialogos Books, 2023). Asemic writing book Shanty Town (Post-Asemic Press, 2022).