- Mona Baranczyk
- copyright 2003
- translation Moon McNeill
-
- Mona Baranczyk was a teacher before she fell ill with MCS
and a chronic skin disease. Four years ago, she started
to write poems and stories, to raise an awareness of MCS
as well as to express the "seasons in life."
Her narrative, The Glass-princess, was
unexpectedly quite successful and encouraged her a lot.
-
- Mona lives in a house made of clay deep in the woods,
with her husband. Sometimes she collects leaves, twigs,
stones, and feathers and builds sculptures from nature.
She also designs cushions from natural material. Her
biggest dream is to get the clarinette player Giora
Feidman to play a concert for MCS people.
-
- Other Way Round
-
- What if... I could travel -
- I'd have to sit in cars for hours
- in busses, trains and airplanes
- to visit towns and cities I dislike -
-
- what if... I could go shopping -
- I'd have to visit malls, shops and centers
- stand in traffic jam in front of cash registers
- to buy me things I do not need
-
- what if... I could go to the hairdresser's shop -
- I'd have to have a perm, sit under hairdryers
- because I always did that
- although I didn't look that swell
-
- what if... I could walk next to people -
- I'd have to go to concerts, cooped up like a canned
sardine
- and I'd hear nothing, like in podium discussions in
stuffed halls
- I'd feel aggressiveness around me
-
- what if... I could be running in a forest
- and hear the birds
- and see the butterflies pass by
- and hear the wells gush forth
- and I'd absorb the stillness
- yes, what if --
- I would be happy
- and that's exactly what I am
- because this is a thing
- I still can do!
- Do you know...
-
- do you know how important greetings are for me
- in my isolation?
-
- do you know how important questions are for me
- in my isolation?
-
- because they give me opportunity to answer, to talk, to
communicate
-
- do you know how important calls are
- in my isolation?
-
- do you know how important conversations are
- in my isolation?
-
- because they show me I'm still there; someone is thinking
of me now
-
- do you know how important friends are
- in my isolation?
-
- do you know how precious people are
- in my isolation?
-
- because they give me confidence to try again each day
-
- do you know how important a true god is
- in my isolation?
-
- do you know how important his promises are
- in my isolation?
-
- because they give me strength and power,
- to bear this loneliness
- and the pain and sorrow of other people isolated
- to bear it patiently
- until all his promises
- come true