| Translated from the German by Gerald Chapple |
INCIDENT
The very moment
I opened the book
the letters buzzed
up and away: leaving me
with beautifully bound oblivion
Bending speechless over blank
pages of history I
no longer knew
what was what is
who I am
can be want to be
will be
Agitated scribes
leapt around with giant nets
brought me their catch
then shook the tired remnants
back into their proper places.
Osiris 68, 2009
Elegy 3
Finally at four in the morning
silence comes. A long time on the way
from its forgotten source
and almost unexpected.
For a moment in the grey of dawn
you’re overwhelmed by its mercy.
Osiris 89, 2019
Osiris Poetry 