Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge ~ Friday, May 30, 2025

Professor Miłosz answered my question
reserved with but one word, 'Daimonion'
obligations to respond to students
forgave him for reflux indigestion
ever more witty than a Cheshire cat
such a response like peeling an onion
strange to hear what inspires a profound sense
of history and philosophy, deep
rivers flow to offer one time at bat

Moments come and evaporate, to seize
in my youth the mystery of being
łodzianin, The Promised Land, a breeze
of less than fresh air blows mortals fleeing
socialism into the deepest sleep
ziemia obiecana, what does this mean

answers in his History unfold time
nothing escapes Polish Literature
save for the Catastrophe, the unseen
wisdom, impossible to grasp, then guides
experience through right and wrong, as crime
removes the stain of corruption, unsure
existentialists adopt Marxism
despite the deep divide taking both sides

music to post-Stalinist ears, the Thaw
yet, thirty-five years later, with the Fall

questions of fidelity to a claw
understanding seventy years, no small
event to decide capitalism
succeeds better than communist welfare
turbulence and experimentation
in politics, nothing is assured, share
order and disorder, inspiration
needles the phonograph, diamond tile square