ALICJA ZAPALSKA
Listening To Czeslaw Niemen, 10:38 P.M.
I learned the coast of the parking garage
as we swung between floors,
through so much of a night
it was like holding a river.
From the rooftop
we were all aglow, our silence separate
and lonely. I held the steering wheel.
The radio crooned about moonlight
hitting the windowpane as we all peered
past the railings - we knew
there was no future in that.
I thought of guilt.
How it was no easier
in the dark, as if the songs we knew
together were spotlights peering
from our own mouths. It was that hard.
And it was still summer
when we reached the bottom.
Alicja Zapalska is a Polish-American poet and filmmaker currently residing in Austin. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Inter|rupture, Winter Tangerine Review, and Panoplyzine.