People said back then that there was only vinegar in the stores. It obviously turned out to be a powerful aphrodisiac since it led to the birth of 14 million new Poles. - Wojciech Jaruzelski, former communist dictator I want you most as raveled socks. I want you car, you Fiat and Trabant that take the street on wobble-wheels, all spit and sputter. You plate without meat, you Warsaw Zoo without its elephant, Swan Lake without Odette. In fact, no swan in the aviary of your heart. No hammered beak. How long I wait to hear No bread, No toilet paper, No sugar for a week. I buy you pickle jar. I subsidize you cabbage in the fall. I eat you in my stew. You sell for forty dollars on the black market. When you are denim counterfeit, I like how close you fit against my hips. Old heroes may be dead, shops gone, but you are still a marble bust that pigeons leave alone. Mostly. You’re still the news on all two channels. How well they read your name. And still red currants in a bowl. Who cares about the sour juice of you? What’s sweet without the wanting, the queue around the block when even you are out of stock?