For now, though

Going home
Wisława Szymborska

He came home. Said nothing
it was clear, though, that something had gone wrong.
He lay down fully dressed
pulled the blanket over his head
tucked up his knees.
he's nearly forty, but not at the moment
he exists just as he did inside his mother's womb
clad in seven walls of skin, in sheltered darkness
tomorrow he'll give a lecture
on homeostasis in metagalactic cosmonautics
for now, though, he has curled up and gone to sleep.

Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh