Jacek Kaczmarski - Manewry

They make us stand still here
For how long - I don't remember anymore
We lack the air of words and sleep
In our throats - the dust of dried saliva
As far as the eye can see in both directions
Lines of trenches stretch on
And we wait - time passes
And they still don't send us to attack!

You'll say - there's no hurry to go anywhere!
And that's true - what's there to hide?
But when they send us to the trenches
An attack must come someday!
There's only one way out from here
Where hostile horizons blur
Otherwise there's a court-martial
And letting your own get you - that's a big mistake!

After all, these are just maneuvers
Binocular lenses shine on the hills
Everything is a strategic game
In which I must take part!
A colleague asks again and again
What if they hit us
There's only one answer:
We simply won't live!

A shout! And we charge into attack
On the exposed slopes of the hills
Around explosions of black shrubs
Smoke! Boom! And nothing can be seen anymore!
In my head, panic flutters
Like a frightened bird in a cage - pulse
So I'm alive! Are these blanks?
Or maybe it's the blindness of bullets!?

Then I stop in place
Where is my friend, where is the enemy?!
I don't see him! He sees me!
Shot! Pain! And I'm knocked off my feet!

I lie - my face to the ground
I feel my own breath from it
In the distance that absorbed my scream
Three medics are coming...
Every moment I hear a dry shot
I hold my breath in terrified restraint
Those who survived the battle's frenzy
Are finished off by those three!

They're here, so close! I freeze
They approach and lean over...
I see three familiar faces
Shot!
They finished me off.

- Wake up - I open my eyes - the field
A colleague - trench - flagpole.
Dusk. We're still waiting for our turn.
We live. Dreaming of death.