When I was a boy, we often played
war—a bunch of kids in shorts
with Kalashnikov sticks. It was fun
until I read ‘Ravens and Crows
Will Peck Us to Pieces’.

When I was a boy, we often tracked
squirrels in the school yard
like the would-be Winnetou and Old Shatterhand,
still free of the consequences
of Indianertümelei.

When I was a boy, we never imagined
someone could say with a straight face,
‘I have never given up on life
because I’ve never embarked on it
in the first place’—yet I just did.

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More words to ponder at maciejmodzelewski.com