Marek Kulig

Spacja

In an application
to a writers’ residency
I say that my forays
into Polish poetry
are attempts at becoming
better in my first language,
and that long-distance phone calls
with my parents and family
expedite that fluency. Now
every time my mother texts me,
though in English, the space bar
which doubles as language indicator
defaults to spacja. Next thing you know
the calendar automatically observes
Poland’s sovereignty anniversary,
the Warsaw Uprising,
the tearing down of The Wall,
one day even Miłosz and Szymborska,
their bodies and then those of their work.
This is all part of the application.
All this and war.

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Marek Kulig immigrated to the USA from Poland in 1992. His poems and translations were published or are about to be published in The Orchards Poetry Review, Spire Light, the Under Review, Seneca Review, National Translation Month and elsewhere. The last line Spacja is a song title from the album “Radical” by the band Every Time I Die.