No longer bewitched,

yet I still like to see him --


not changed for a bit.

Love does not anchor

in the time of corona –


catching up for years.

To stay, with kisses,

children do it, and parents –


don't always succeed.

People who get married
already know how it works:
not spontaneously a heaven

of love on earth, but
then what? Is heaven too holy
and too high?

Is love cherishing?
solidified into habits
from time to time

a fountain or the sidecar
from which we see the real
holiness: the pool

of change, the heal-whole pool
of nourishing, devouring, and decay?
Are we loving

if we extend the decay
by nourishing each other
devouring little from each other

and letting each other free
to fail and to grow
from within, by oneself?

Lost in the women's section
harmless smiling clumsy
I saw, wanted you

I let you cook for me
and wait after dinner
for a next time, love

is waiting and waiting
is being alive, you were confused
you wanted me

to pamper me, to cook for me
and you had fantasies, patiently
waiting, about a night

with me, love
that will last a lifetime
an adventure of differences

that make our hearts falter
with misunderstandings, but then
they relax again

What are you thinking?

It lies there so between us --


our very first kiss.

-----------------------------------------------------

My lips press the kiss

from back then into a grave –


that is two mouths deep.

-----------------------------------------------------

I bury one kiss

to harvest thousands of them –


they'll all be for you.

My love, why are you still dreaming
of the Madonna I don't want to be?
Why are you standing at the window
with your back to the woman
who wants to take care of you?

Do you see only short circuits
in the depths of the city, car in
car out, while you want a woman
who is above that, averse
to backseat fiddling?

Why do you dream
of escaping? What makes
her nest, my affection a cage?
Why do you dream
of Mona Lisa?

Is there no power there?
Is it only sparking, faintly
somewhere between your belly
and your head? Does it spark
with her too? You hope?

The idea pushes me to later
to looking back on my life
since the answer

I am going to give now
to his question, his second
proposal: he wants a child

He sits on my stomach
looking so seductive and sweet
that I wish to

keep it as it is
with the two of us and the pill
better I don't say anything

pull him over to me
kiss his eyes shut
and attack

You look so sweet at me
I don't have to dream about it
that you love me

but the romantic heart
in my head is afraid and
wants the best, lifelong

happiness, the greatest imaginable
in short, love, the eternal
always praised love

that you don't see around you
because, you know, people in love
can hardly live

without each other in their minds
but I want to be mature and
restart our relationship

after every crisis, or not
and always cherish what we have
experienced, what nobody else has

taken part in

Great-great-grand does sound old
but he was younger than you

fifteen years, the toughest
boy in the street

and I used to be the prettiest
the happiest too: a girl

born on my birthday
We were fine

with the money from Dutch John
the sweet boarder, my lover

when tough Louis left leaving
only his name for our little

Francis, your great-grand
dead as well

when your time began