13 April

Rickshaws in the Snow
for Marta

Note: The Polish city whose name is generally written in English as Lodz actually has diacritical marks gracing three of its four letters in Polish, and these make it sound like “Woodge.” You are likely to encounter rickshaws – rikszy in Polish – if you visit, which I highly recommend.

I know the game
of hide and seek
with spring,
last year’s leaves
rustling in a tree
while this year’s
sruggle to unfurl
in a wind I do not feel
down on the ground as we turn
the corner
onto the long stretch
of the street
that people think of
if they think
of Woodge at all.

I know how summer
hovers suddenly,
briefly in between.

I know the thorough
chill of autumn
on November’s
Independence Day
as I shiver in the rush
of air against
the bicycle that bears us
south down the old part
of Piotrkowska
no one cares about.

But I yearn to know
the cold that settles in to stay,
the slushy muddy tracks
of three wheels plying
their way up and down
the long straight street
shaped by twin hidden rivers.
I dream of pedalling my own
rickshaw in the snow.