When, rushing down a slope, a debris flow
bursts open this alluvial crust, life, and mixes us with soil
and stones,

I will know you by the root, by the rust on the lamina of a pinnate leaf.
I will know you by the seed and the leaf scars,
by protective scale on a wintering bud -

I will kiss you
with my lips of earth



[From: "Monodia" 2006]

translated by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese