Three poems by Tomasz Jastrun from "On the Crossroads Of Asia and Europe"

"Afghanistan"

On the soldiers' shoulders

Ride the white doves of peace

With their eyes poked out

As long as the Afghan people

Are in need of help

The soldiers will remain

And remain and remain

We cry out

Butterflies and crickets in bondage

But who will understand

The language of butterflies and crickets

Those breathing freedom

Have a different set of problems

A shorter memory

They slip off to sleep untroubled

One day to wake up

In Afghanistan

"Scrap"

After us will be neither scrap metal

Nor a laugh

From beginning to end

We have had no illusions

All our uprisings

Lie packed in the foyer

Along with a toothbrush

And towel

When someone knocks on the door

The echo

Pounds through the empty years

But there is no call to action

No convoy to Siberia

Only the upstairs neighbor whose sink

Once again has overflowed

He comes wringing his hands to warn us

"Last Supper"

Thirteen of us still not released

A full table

Though missing

Are Christ and Judas

Victims of a cruel death

And we the living

Are joined together

To share our lost cause

The hand

With the rusted nail

These poems by Tomasz Jastrun appear in his prose and poetry collection On the Crossroads of Asia and Europe and are translated by David Bourne, published by Salmon Run Press, 2010. They appear at Artful Dodge, Bourne's online journal of writing in translation. Jastrun, born in Warsaw in 1950, was a member of Solidarity and his novels and essays have been published since 1978. He has written that The biggest psychological problem people have is giving and taking affection. On the Crossroads of Asia and Europe originally appeared, in Polish, in 1982.