Kasia

                                                                                      Kasia

 

Sister Kasia died. A nun and a poet like her famous namesake

Like a young novice, she wore a black scarf over her head and worked in the monastery garden

She was a beekeeper too, the best one. She talked to the bees and sang to them

As a best novice, she was supposed to take the dinner to the Abbess

It was a stormy night. The Abbess was ill

A noviciate took a pot of hot sage tea

In secret, she took a piece of honeycomb full of honey and put it into a cup.

She took a plate, knife, and one apple every day

Abbess dinner

A novice walked and sang down the corridor to the abbess room

Abbess was in a fever and lay with a smile

A noviciate called her Mother

Abbess told her to sing

It was the last week of the lent

Both were exhausted and hungry

Novice sang and peeled the apple.

When she was younger, she competed with the other novices

who will take an apple to the Abbess

After they peeled the apple and gave it to the Abbess, they took an apple peel and went outside

Secretly noviciates were chewing the apple peel after they went out

It was a time soon after the war when there was not enough food

The noviciate gave a peeled apple to the Abbess. Here you are, Mother.

Abbess returned an apple to the novice and said Eat it!

I will eat the apple peel to remind myself of its taste

At the time the lent is over you'll become a nun said the Abbess

You will be tonsured and given a new name

What do you think of the name Kasia?

That was years ago

When Kasia was born

Now Kasia lay in the coffin

People came to the church to attend the liturgy before the funeral

Kasia died alone in her monastic cell

With a peeled apple on her nightstand

Her eyes left opened like two deep water wells

Like two mirrors observing this world for the last time