Melancholia

the weather is uninspiring
sexless and very gray
the neighbors want a proof
so I show them my bleeding finger
(they recoil away from the keyhole)
meanwhile some cat
has caught an obese fly
the kind that likes shit
strangled it and let it go indignantly
I don’t know this cat
or who he is
also there’s this constant scraping
so much scraping the whole neighborhood
vibrates
so I play with my fingernail
twist it this way and that
or press it lightly
after all it’s barely pink
like a wax crayon
actually no
not like a wax crayon
more like my other fingernail
in fact I don’t really know
I just twist it this way and that
out of pure curiosity
or press it lightly

from:  Dear Beloved Humans by Grzegorz Wróblewski, translated by Piotr Gwiazda