I prefer movies. br I prefer cats. br I prefer the oaks along the Warta. br I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky. br I prefer myself liking people br to myself loving mankind. br I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case. br I prefer the color green. br I prefer not to maintain br that reason is to blame for everything. br I prefer exceptions. br I prefer to leave early. br I prefer talking to doctors about something else. br I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations. br I prefer the absurdity of writing poems br to the absurdity of not writing poems. br I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries br that can be celebrated every day. br I prefer moralists br who promise me nothing. br I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind. br I prefer the earth in civvies. br I prefer conquered to conquering countries. br I prefer having some reservations. br I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order. br I prefer Grimms' fairy tales to the newspapers' front pages. br I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves. br I prefer dogs with uncropped tails. br I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark. br I prefer desk drawers. br I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here br to many things I've also left unsaid. br I prefer zeroes on the loose br to those lined up behind a cipher. br I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars. br I prefer to knock on wood. br I prefer not to ask how much longer and when. br I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility br that existence has its own reason for being.