Fallen
angels
look like
flakes of soot
abacuses
cabbage leaves
stuffed with black rice
hail
painted red
blue flames
with yellow tongues
fallen angels
look like
ants
moons wedged beneath
the green fingernails of the dead
angels in heaven
look like the inner thighs
of an underage girl
like stars
they shine in shameful places
they are pure like triangles and circles
with silence
inside them
fallen angels
are like the open windows of a morgue
like cows' eyes
like the skeletons of birds
like falling planes
like flies on the lungs of fallen soldiers
like streaks of autumn rain
connecting lips with birds taking flight
over a woman's palm
wander
a million angels
devoid of belly buttons
they type on sewing machines
long poems in the shape
of a white sail
their bodies can be grafted
onto the trunk of an olive tree
they sleep on ceilings
falling drop by drop
Copyright © English translation 2011 by Joanna Trzeciak
Homework Assignment on the Subject of Angels
the Polish written by Tadeusz Rózewicz
