Job and a Woman

by Anna Kamienska

Job
I took you in when you were sick and poor
look I still have your shirt of rough cloth
a peasant's shirt with stains of blood and pus
that won't come out

Job
I came to you young and healthy
you didn't ask then about my dowry
You often screamed in sleep
quarreled with God
At other times you tossed in sleeplessness
as in fire
I cooled you with kisses

Clearly life is not a precious enough gift
You're always the first the lonely the suffering
the not understood
the great in anger and in misfortune
like a wind
I am only a body
that warms up this fierce old age of yours

Job
sometimes I think
That God bound us for good reason
Body and wind are a well-matched couple
like one person
So don't push me away Job
when there's a change of fate
don't be like the others
I do not want anything from you
only to be with you
it's very difficult Job
to be the body of a wind

Don't be so haughty in your restraint
you who used to lie in dirt
get to know how other tears burn
not only your own

But Job left
whispering Lord Lord