The Fingerprint Scanner

Ewa Lipska
translated by
Anna Stanisz-Lubowiecka

We put our fingers

on a fingerprint scanner

and begin to make love.

Our virtual files of bodies

in albums

blogs

in our friends’ notebooks.

New events.

New likes.

Coca-Cola, Ronaldo,

and the Pope like us.

We already exist

in contacts

and notifications.

Our bed

on our timeline.

Touch me

and hold me.

We kiss

a billion lips.

Ewa Lipska is one of the most accomplished contemporary Polish poets. She has received numerous literary awards in Poland and abroad, and her collections of poems have been translated into over a dozen languages. She lives in Kraków.
Anna Stanisz-Lubowiecka is finishing her PhD in Linguistics and Politics at University College London. A graduate of the University of Oxford and the Jagiellonian University, Anna lives in Oxford (UK) with her husband and daughter.
Originally published:
February 7, 2024

Featured

Rachel Cusk

The novelist on the “feminine non-state of non-being”
Merve Emre

Books

Renaissance Women

A new book celebrates—and sells short—Shakespeare’s sisters
Catherine Nicholson

Fady Joudah

The poet on how the war in Gaza changed his work
Aria Aber

Subscribe

New perspectives, enduring writing. Join a conversation 200 years in the making. Subscribe to our print journal and receive four beautiful issues per year.
Subscribe