"A dazzling new supermarket..."
by Wojciech Boros
(translated from Polish by Daniel Bourne)

  1. A dazzling new supermarket
  2. its very light giving the feel
  3. of a cathedral
  4. around its entrance a cemetery
  5. (as the newspaper alerts us)
  6. for 1200 cars
  1. people shudder
  2. as they touch the sky-high shelves
  3. & as part of the grand opening
  4. God comes on sale
  5. hermetically sealed
  6. for only 4.99
  7. the angelic service on roller blades
  8. attests Customer Service
  9. to the mere mortals below
  10. —but it’s stuffy as hell
  11. I buy 4 beers, men’s underwear
  12. & 3 pairs of socks
  13. while from a bookstand
  14. waves Szymborska wrapped in plastic,
  15. chosen daughter of Nobel
Packingtown Review – Vol.14, Fall 2020

Wojciech Boros was born in 1973 in Gdańsk, and for many years has been the poetry editor of the literary jouranls Bliza and Autograf. He is also been very active in promoting multicultural events in the Gdańsk literary scene, including organizing and emceeing a literary reading of Arab poets in the Gdańsk City Institute of Culture. His own collections of poetry include Nierealit górski (Mountain Non-real, 1997), Jasne i pełne (Light and Full, 2003), Złe zamiary (Bad Intentions, 2008), Pies i Pan (Dog and Master, 2014), and the audiobook Pusta noc (Vacant Night), with music by Marcin “Emitter” Dymiter.

Daniel Bourne teaches at The College of Wooster in NE Ohio, where he edits Artful Dodge, a magazine of American fiction, poetry and essay with a special interest in translation. He is currently working on an anthology of Gdańsk/Baltic Coast poets, and he was awarded a fellowship from the Polish Ministry of Culture for his work on a translation of the novel The Month Between the Hammer and the Sickle by Stanisław Esden-Tempski.

  1. Wojciech Boros
    "In waves the crooked centipedes..."poetry