Author: Wislawa Szymborska

Cited by

• Pia Padukone (1)
  • IN: Where Earth meets Water (2014) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: It could have happened. It had to happen. It happened earlier. Later. Nearer. Farther off. It happened, but not to you. You were saved because you were the first. You were saved because you were the last. Alone. With others. On the right. The left. Because it was raining. Because of the shade. Because the day was sunny. You were in luck -- there was a forest. You were in luck -- there were no trees. You were in luck -- a rake, a hook, a beam, a brake, A jamb, a turn, a quarter-inch, an instant . . . So you're here? Still dizzy from another dodge, close shave, reprieve? One hole in the net and you slipped through? I couldn't be more shocked or speechless. Listen, how your heart pounds inside me.
    FROM: "Could Have", (1995), Poem, Poland
• Kim Church (1)
  • IN: Byrd (2014) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The world is never ready for the birth of a child.
    FROM: "A Tale Begun", (1993), Poem, Poland
• Zoe Whittall (1)
  • IN: The best kind of People (2016) Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: After every war someone has to clean up. Things won't straighten themselves up, after all. Someone has to push the rubble to the side of the road, so the corpse-filled wagons can pass. Someone has to get mired in scum and ashes, sofa springs, splintered glass, and bloody rags. Someone has to drag in a girder to prop up a wall. Someone has to glaze a window, rehang a door.
    FROM: "The End and the Beginning", (1993), Poem, Poland