The truth of the picture

Translated by Mark Tardi
The woman across from me’s reading
The Greatest Prophecies:
The New Middle Ages
I’m reading
the black letters
on the white leather
of  her bag: “Wszystko
fajnie ale gówno
się dzieje” meaning everything’s
fine but shit
happens True

but a lot happens because
“the banana’s shaking on the stalk
while the strawberry’s juicy & cool”
meaning everything’s
fine because there’s no arguing  but there is
the enlightenment of conjunctions
Translated from the Polish

Notes:

Read the Polish-language original, “Prawda obrazu,” and the translator’s note by Mark Tardi.

Source: Poetry (April 2024)
More Poems by Kacper Bartczak