« Trace
Plastic Carrier Bag
Plastic Carrier Bag
We were supposed to be a rainbow from the happy isles,
But we’re just a sheet of thick plastic.
There’s nothing to put in us
and nothing to take out.
So one day POLSILVER comes up to us,
lumps of shaving soap stuck on his chin.
He opens our overgrown mouth,
cuts out our square ears.
We were supposed to parade in airy shoes,
and carry shopping from the dairy counter.
We swallow shoes with holes to change into.
We hold a last trace of heaven – angel cakes.
Our PEWEX sign fades, we get holes in our corners,
our sides burst. Till all torn we end up
under a pile of carrots in the hut on the allotment.
And we no longer remember who we were supposed to be,
from what heights we fell here and what for.
In the winter night the floorboards creak.
We’re scorched by a cigarette butt, extinguished
by half-naked lovers held tight in a kiss.
Translated by Agata Miksa and David Malcolm