"In waves the crooked centipedes..."
by Wojciech Boros
(translated from Polish by Daniel Bourne)

  1. In waves the crooked centipedes of the streets
  2. the smell of sausages falling into crepes
  3. in the frying pan of a square a fountain sharpens its rainbow
  4. off in the gardens all the tourists’ bladders are bursting
  5. the ice cream melts till the summer costs even more
  1. a pigeon swirling down into the train platform’s eye
  2. a crooked cop ready to pounce on newly arrived prey
  3. for the pleasure of the clientele a mushroom pokes up through the parking lot
  4. while above the resort landscape the sun hangs like Cerebus of myth
  1. from the bunting of the tables rises up the Monciak pier
  2. sailing off towards the sea spouting Pera’s line of coffees
  3. the tiniest caresses on the silver halo of St. Anne
  4. smiting all the tourist post cards with a flick of the wand
  5. the quill of the jetty dashing off some art nouveau
  6. the sky sharpening all the pencils of the turrets
  7. going out for a walk all the tongue-twisting balustrades —
  8. and the promenades filled with paper filled in turn with black marks
Packingtown Review – Vol.14, Fall 2020

Wojciech Boros was born in 1973 in Gdańsk, and for many years has been the poetry editor of the literary jouranls Bliza and Autograf. He is also been very active in promoting multicultural events in the Gdańsk literary scene, including organizing and emceeing a literary reading of Arab poets in the Gdańsk City Institute of Culture. His own collections of poetry include Nierealit górski (Mountain Non-real, 1997), Jasne i pełne (Light and Full, 2003), Złe zamiary (Bad Intentions, 2008), Pies i Pan (Dog and Master, 2014), and the audiobook Pusta noc (Vacant Night), with music by Marcin “Emitter” Dymiter.

Daniel Bourne teaches at The College of Wooster in NE Ohio, where he edits Artful Dodge, a magazine of American fiction, poetry and essay with a special interest in translation. He is currently working on an anthology of Gdańsk/Baltic Coast poets, and he was awarded a fellowship from the Polish Ministry of Culture for his work on a translation of the novel The Month Between the Hammer and the Sickle by Stanisław Esden-Tempski.

  1. William C. Crawford
    Chinese Laundry. San Francisco.art