Audio: Read by the author.

Paulina, the gardener’s daughter, cares
about flowers doomed to die.

If I bring her a bouquet, she frees it
from the ribbons and gently places it in the hospice

of a vase. When the flowers weaken, she trims their stems
and plucks off their wilting leaves. She takes

the dead ones to the compost, from the rest
she forms a new bouquet. Thus disappear in turn:

poppies, anemones, carnations, damnations and
forget-me-nots, until finally all that’s left are

gypsophila and Judas’ pennies. Paulina,
the gardener’s daughter, sees a bouquet in the vase

even when it’s not there anymore.

(Translated, from the Polish, by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.)