Five Poems
Klaudia Rogowicz
image by Anh Nguyen
Tongues and Hair
Tied tongues cut my hair.
I am exaggerated
with fears of dying and living.
Sometimes I’m not sure what is true:
bitter hell or empty heaven.
My reality revolves around fake muses, cults.
I listen to too much sad music
because I don’t know the truth.
Story
There was an old tenement house,
lilies covered under the glass,
sad saints with fading colors.
They won’t help us anymore.
No one is safe—
we are dying.
Our first meeting
It was a stressful night. I was waiting for him but the tram was broken. I slowly wandered towards his house.
Church was closed. I noticed a poster: “Beware of Idolatry.” I ignored it, remembering Twilight.
Finally we met on the crossover.
Black *
Girls just called all their mothers and sisters and went glorious with their umbrellas.
*Note from the author: The title refers to “Black Monday” (Czarny Poniedziałek), a chain of protests against the total abortion ban law that occurred in October, 2016. It rained on those days, so women brought umbrellas. The color black has always been a color connected with women’s rights in Poland. After the January Uprising, women would wear black clothing as an act of solidarity with Uprising participants.
No Glory
No aura,
no colors,
too many sex talks.
Klaudia Rogowicz
Klaudia Rogowicz is a Polish poet, drama, screen and story writer. Her poems have been published in many Polish and foreign magazines. Her story “Geography Lesson” has been translated in German and published in a Polish-German anthology concerning childhood. Her interests are music, art, history, religion, gender, LGBT issues and mysticism.