“They were neither good nor evil now — every living thing
was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.”

— Wisława Szymborska

"Lot's Wife"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Context: I felt age within me. Distance.
The futility of wandering. Torpor.
I looked back setting my bundle down.
I looked back not knowing where to set my foot.
Serpents appeared on my path,
spiders, field mice, baby vultures.
They were neither good nor evil now — every living thing
was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.

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Wisława Szymborska photo

Wisława Szymborska 92

Polish writer 1923–2012

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