Ludwika Amber

THE UNLOCKING OF BORDERS

we were returning through the continents
of tongues rituals altars colours
and the music of gestures
slowly we were opening doors
of new scents of the bush
we were learning
the fingers of our own hands
the Esperanto of lips
distances between bodies
faith in the feathers of parrots
hues of the earth the air
the trace of a stream

we were coming by water and landstretch
we outsped clouds
we crossed the river of childhood helplessness

Terra Australis – we shouted at the border
and set first foot
our imprint on the shore

***

SANDGLASS OF THE FIRST GENERATIONS IN AUSTRALIA

the glass doors of childhood
I leave ajar
through the narrow chink
autumns and winters are turning
when I’m falling asleep
a dream is passing to the north
and before dawn returns
here where it scatters my paths
written in goose quill
on the map
of south pole memory

***

THE HIRED WARRIOR

is deft
does not trust anyone
draws his sword in an instant
before him
and with ease dissects a butterfly
which flew so childishly
out of the chrysalis of his heart

Translated by Ryszard Reisner

Ludwika Amber was born in Kowary, Poland, in 1948, and arrived in Australia in 1982.