Those Who Carry

Time for a few more proposals for our Poetry or Motion series before the summer comes to an end. Here is a poem by Polish poet Anna Kamieńska, translated by Grazyńa Drabik and David Curzon (from Astonishments: Selected Poems of Anna Kamieńska).

Those Who Carry

Those who carry grand pianos
to the tenth floor wardrobes and coffins
the old man with a bundle of wood hobbling towards the horizon
the lady with a hump of nettles
the madwoman pushing her baby carriage
full of empty vodka bottles
they all will be raised up
like a seagull's feather like a dry leaf
like an eggshell a scrap of newspaper in the street

Blessed are those who carry 
for they will be raised

The photo was taken outside a Waldbaum's in Woodside, Queens. Waiting for the bottle deposit machines to be turned on.