Wisława Szymborska

D

Dreams

Despite the geologists’ knowledge and craft,
mocking magnets, graphs, and maps —
in a split second the dream
piles before us mountains as stony
as real life.

And since mountains, then valleys, plains
with perfect infrastructures.
Without engineers, contractors, workers,
bulldozers, diggers, or supplies —
raging highways, instant bridges,
thickly populated pop-up cities.

Without directors, megaphones, and cameramen —
crowds knowing exactly when to frighten us
and when to vanish.