Instead of Saying

by Kostas Kindinis
(A remarkable find today at the bookstore, I looked up this poet on Amazon and they don’t have a thing by Kindinis, who is Greek, I think.)

Instead of saying
I am a murderer
I said
I am a poet.
A multitude of witnesses
recognized me.

My life is on file.

Let me further maintain
the only thing unverifiable
and banal:
a teacher, a leader,
a commander.

All the postmen
knew me,
the Chamber of Commerce
the National Bank.

Are you here too
the director would ask me.

As a member of the firing squad
I was given a medal
without submitting proof.

This

This that lies heavy
and weighs down,
that aches like ache
and burns like a slap in the face,
is a stone
or an anchor.

-Adam Zagajewski

There Will Be A Future

There will be rain, there will be feasts, there
will be bonfires, chestnut husks will crack,
there will be shouts, someone will hide in the bushes,
someone will trip over a cherrystone,
a smell of gas and lilacs in the air.
There will be laughter, there will be cries, prayers, demure
and silent lies, there will be a future,
only you will stay here, in this second-
class waiting room at the railroad station, dark with
cigar smoke, under the portrait of the Austrian Emperor.

-Adam Zagjewski