May the world not die of bread
or a lost Messiah
or the oil smeared desert
or a fire washed sky
but ripen into childhood—
the heart’s crocodiles turned
cinnamon shops
and love
and love
∞
Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer and visual artist regarded as one of the great writers of his century. His collection of stories, Sklepy cynamonowe (Cinnamon Shops), known in English translation as The Street of Crocodiles, was published in 1934. During the German occupation of Drohobycz, Poland, Schulz’s life was spared temporarily by SS officer Felix Landau who admired Schulz’s artistic talent and brought him into his home to paint murals of Grimms’ fairytales on the walls of his son’s nursery. The phrase ripen into childhood is my translation of Schulz’s line, dojrzeć do dzieciństwa.
Poems are selected by Poetry Editor Lupe Mendez, the 2022 Texas poet laureate and author of Why I Am Like Tequila. To submit a poem, please send an email with the poem attached to poetry@texasobserver.org. We’re looking for previously unpublished works of no more than 45 lines by Texas poets who have not been published by the Observer in the last two years. Pay is $100 on publication.
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