the innate inflexibility
of all the piths of the world
helps him
the spinal cord of the pencil
will break rather than bend
he never dreams of waves or hair
only of soldiers
standing to attention
or coffins
what stretches out in him
is straight
what stretches beyond
is crooked
Goodnight
translated by Andrzej and Bogdan Czaykowski
from The Poetry of Survival, Post-War Poets of Central and Eastern Europe
(edited by Daniel Wessbort)