My light will go out,

it couldn't get any darker --


Here I am. Take me.

On the horizon

the sun is humming, turning --


the pink fingers pale.

Flashes of lightning

briefly reveal the garden --


a flower at night.

Angels come flying

in, hear, here must be heaven --


where the ***** sounds.

The rock bank hangs down

from my feet into the air --


under the water.

I need strange hard hands

to plough me, tearing apart --


your roots inside me.

We didn't dare, but could

we have done it anyway?


Just believe in it?

The rich, exhausted

from all the deprivations --


of their agenda.

More and more signposts,

I'm approaching the city --


Unfolding bridges.

Lilith was just like him -
from the clay, not as docile
as me; she left him

She prefers to roam
the world, seducing
men in the evening and robbing

families of their babies
so say the malicious tongues
that blacken everyone

who does not fit in their rules
It's true that she lives in trees
like a snake, I saw her once

at least, I think it was she
who praised me for my brain
and showed me the ripe fruits

With Adam I got two children
rib from his ribs, blood of my blood
The third was later made up

by the false tongues
that whitewash everything
that does not fit in their rules

There's a thin sea drifting
above the sea, I float
everywhere, infinitely
between ancestors
and unborn

The sea kisses and plays
pulls me under water
up in high foams
which splash apart into
my new rainbow wisps

over the sea, from the sea
the bearing sea
engulfing sea
evaporating sea

making depths out
of valleys, creative
darkness, the sea
the full empty sea

Only now that I come back here
I see it as a paradise, this green land
the flowers, the golden grain
all the riches I thought to be normal

Now, the familiar overwhelms
my new eyes, filling me
with nostalgia even before
I think about leaving

Or will I stay for the rest
of my life, knowing very well
that it is soulhard work
to sleep together

wolf people and sheep people
cow, bear, and snake people
It is heartwork in paradise
for enough straw for everyone

The flag has long frays,

like her hair when she left me --


Her hair in the wind.

Toilets overflow,

trains cannot run on the tracks:


copper is golden.

Shadows slide quickly

through the water, elusive –


is reality.

We are living in a poor country
since we took it back
and whoever stays must pay

in kind, we take it
very personally, man by man
with violence, we subject

the last woman to our right
to penetrate her like she
and the other foreigners

have, for six generations
penetrated our lives, that's how
we ****** our daggers of hate

in her, she is defenseless
her dogs stay still
in their blood, she too has

to resign herself to her fate
the disgrace of life
and the grace of death

Possibility, chance, no coincidence
fate or god, but the outcome
of the self-learning program

in our heads, the decisions
lay already enclosed within us
as our future, our path

You came down the stairs
stopped in the hall
and looked at me

called unexpectedly
lovingly my name
said you

will get mail from me:
the promise that bound me
during your holiday

I looked for a secret code
in the text on your cards
and only found my longing

Flat pillar of salt,

my fixed image of mama --


Beloved photo.

Being there, content,

nobody's burden, that's it –


Saints do live that way.

The dog runs in, slips

on the linoleum floor --


and sniffs at my chair.

The fortress: I roll out my mat
in the silence of sleeping cicadas
The wind is warm, time crawls
with the sun to Naples

It's all in my head
high above the noise of life

of crowded streets and shops
where the money never rolls far
looks are leery, kisses are fleeting
and hands are groping

It is not right
I start a storm
sweep chairs from the terraces
slam doors and blow dust

like night through the city
Guy-wires and bars rattle
a dog whines and a cat
glares at the perch

in the water of the harbour, wild
from my rebellious thoughts
that lie down after all
between the snails on my mat

I finished eating,

do I wish to remember –


the delicious taste?

I make up enough endings
in my mind, knowing
that life continues
with little metabolism
of what ceases to exist
but it is difficult

to take it lightly
while you feel it happening
My heart does want to breathe
wisdom, but it needs blood
to feel the warmth of love
flowing in me, in and out

receiving and giving
around the earth, gathering
in the sea, the salmon swim
back and forth, it snows and rains
the hazel is in bloom
and will give a basket full of nuts

The big city blurs

what is dark, with lots of light --


Is heaven like that?

Her hand pinches mine,

silent amorous feelings --


expressed in Morse code.

Maybe we were once stranded here
on the slopes of these mountains
between the white peaks and the low land

We certainly came up with words
to tell that story
and we went into the world

with that answer to the question
Where do we come from?
From the belly of the boat

as the image of our Mother
Earth, who is born where she is
in the lap of heaven

above the Holy Mountains
which kiss eternity
on the border of our existence

We move on and give names
to the world we discover
Time and space embrace us

In the evening we dance
free expression, I am
free and safe in the camp

There is only one lock, one man
who has the key, because
who would want to leave?

Come and take a look
through the fence wires
we don't hide anything

Shirking, sneaky
stuff, a ****, everything
is seen and then

the police quickly take you
to the decision square
that has no facades

There are always people passing
by the houses without outside
walls and without back rooms

seeing if you are doing your best
keep on working and are proper
in the picture and in the toilet

Empty the meeting room
The chairs lined up again
The screen in the corner still spouting
the latest news reports

I lie down on the round table
stretch myself out and surrender
to pleasure, caressed
laziness, oh, don't

think of your hands now
not of decisions taken
plans and action points and
not of the noise outside

the air rippling around
the boxing hustle
the profits bouncing
across cartwheels of hurry

the life of our excesses
of deeds, although I prefer them sometimes
to words, although I prefer them sometimes
because each life does count

If only the little animal could
understand everything
no questions unanswered
when it dies

It does not live long enough
and flying is the time
of hundred wonderful times
of playing to die, the time

of asking again and again why
thus, this or that, and how
curiously cutting and pasting
knowledge, screaming

and throwing away angrily
lying down exhausted
and cry, but still
starting over once more

rearrange or discard
the half answers
and go looking
for new data

always ask another question
principally blind
full of confidence
that there will be an answer

For the Heads of Heads

holdings are a game, marbles –


you swop, so boring!

From year to year there are
memories snowing, covering
and blocking the driveway

I shovel them aside
I must get out, I must
do some shopping

And when they start to melt
when they drip down
the drainpipe and run away

I lie awake in bed
listening and following
the rippling in the gutter

It makes me desperate
I want to leave, a break
to write it all down

to tell it
in the dark and be
answered, applauded

I've achieved something,

now I'm feeling emptiness --


which I want to fill.

I don't know how much

longer, but now, I'm with you --


now, I laugh with you.

Enough is enough
We tie a bow around the old
year and share wishes

"don't think too much
of days to come
because your feet will always stand in the present"

happy to be
with our neighbours
at home where we live

nothing special
everything just
good

enough

The mouths are open,

wide, as if they are screaming:


the leaf ***** in air.

People are equal,

Article 1 states, but who --


does obey the law?

Not our statements are

personal, but everything --


that happens to us.

The birds sing for me,

yes, they like me, and the hemp --


seeds next to my chair.

True Love! Be happy

when you find it, be happy --


you're looking for it.

In love, every time
again, instantly
defenceless

from you, your face
whoever you are
whatever you see

not me
because then I wouldn't have time
to think this, wondering

how the mirror works
and what you see
when you see me

We don't need words
I could be deaf
and just as touched

open up with love
to see you
live, powerful

in better and worse

Dad never writes me,

oh dear, I start forgetting --


to be forgotten.

The sand wants to be

here, or on the other side --


not in the middle.

My diligent half

does homework, my dreaming half --


still lingers with her.

He comes to bathe me

in his yellow butterflies –


of amourousness.

We are beautiful

and special, all of us, it's --


just ordinary.

No one is themselves,

people are always leaking --


in each other's lives.

Teardrop diamonds,

frozen on my eyelashes:


beautiful sadness.

Mama's big rainbow

umbrella keeps me nice and --


dry in the shower.

Snowflakes are floating

between the blossoming trees –


like flower petals.

For children's sorrows

there's mama, as a hanky --


which doesn't cry itself.