My Aunts by Adam Zagajewski
My Aunts
Adam ZagajewskiAlways caught up in what they called
the practical side of life
(theory was for Plato),
up to their elbows in furniture, in bedding,
in cupboards and kitchen gardens,
they never neglected the lavender sachets
that turned a linen closet to a meadow.The practical side of life,
like the Moon’s unlighted face,
didn’t lack for mysteries;
when Christmastime drew near,
life became pure praxis
and resided temporarily in hallways,
took refuge in suitcases and satchels.And when somebody died—it happened
even in our family, alas—
my aunts, preoccupied
with death’s practical side,
forgot at last about the lavender,
whose frantic scent bloomed selflessly
beneath a heavy snow of sheets.
MARGINALIA
Woke up and smelled lavender. Is that you, Lolo? I suddenly remembered this poem, and oh, my heart. How I always find parts of my life tucked in poems, I’ll never know.
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Without End: New and Selected Poems by Adam Zagajewski, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
ABOUT ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI
Adam Zagajewski was born in Lvov, Poland, in 1945; as an infant he was relocated with his family to western Poland. He lived in Berlin for a couple of years, moved to France in 1982, and taught at universities in the United States, including the University of Houston and the University of Chicago. Zagajewski wrote in Polish, but many of his books of poetry and essays have been translated into English. His prose collections include Two Cities: On Exile, History and the Imagination (1995)… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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