You did, you said: I.

How dare you! What do you think!


That you are something?

There are no best years,

they're different, all of them --


are most beautiful.

From the river, forest everywhere
with yellow knights, turkey tails
and white-bearded trees

Sometimes there is a silence
and I hear the treecreeper
here and there a stone

which is described
on the map of this area
a map that is not a map

but a summary
of intersections, bridges
and solitary trees

Tonight I will rest
in an easy chair
that important invention

after the folding chair, the tilting chair
the swivel chair and the wheelchair
luckily I'm whole inside

not shaken in a coach
with suspension
fit for a rest day

for considerations
about my journey and the world
accepts the outcome

I'm waiting in bed,

wondering who to invite --


if you don't come soon?

Narcissus prefers

to play alone, with mirrors --


as his string quartet.

When we say goodbye,

my waving hand trembles, but --


father doesn't notice.

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

A silvery sky,

dark and quiet the mountains --


as if sound asleep.

People are party

to politics for the peace --


of self-interest.

If only love was

contagious, only too bad --


only bacilli.

Something sings beneath

reality, there's the beat --


of a heart, loudly.

My diligent half

does homework, my dreaming half --


still lingers with her.

I awake with a start, from the heat
as if you were lying heavy on me

I don't make a sound, sleepily I turn
the duvet down. You are not here

The door is locked
it's quiet in the house

I think of Missy in the other room
see her eyes light up in the basket

pricked up at the slightest sound
I make, a sigh

turning my pillow over
the thought of a caress

Being in love may be enough
care and company, I can organise

I shouldn't want everything
and yet I must, I want to

give myself everything
as much as possible

I despise myself

for everything I can't do --


like other students.

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

All beginnings are difficult, but
shall his heart grow with mine
and will not matching sensitivities

be given a warm place anyway?
Can it be big like an elephant?

It already is, trumpets one
yeah ha ha ha, stamp the others
grandma Phant blows my hair in a mess

don't hold on to your questions
she says, better come with us

She trunks me between her ears
chatting about phants and people
with their peculiarities

we reach a wide field
of waving colours

The children phants start tasting them
crushing more flowers than they pick
but with love, new ones grow

you see, grandma Phant says
it's easy

if you give space to the sun

Was I waked
by rattling buckets
like ticking rain

against the roar
the whistling inhalation
and the musing sighs

of the ***** monster?
Curved pipes *******
into space, everything shifts

until I no longer have a hold
and my body dissolves in trance
between wringing sounds

Compact like a saucer
I swing increasingly heavy
through octaves of space debris

with withheld breath
looking forward to the redeeming
light of the eternally distant

gravity, which will
melt and burn me
if I ever arrive

A false siren song lures me
with harmonies in which
the dashboard lights up

my thoughts clear again
to chart a course
and go away

from this depression
as if there are destinations
Hope and desire

tumble through the stardust
like the splashing water
from the sources of the Moldau

The monster roars again -
Maddening at the risk
of bursting asunder

and dispersing
in debris, ticking
against the silence

like the end of a downpour
But after the calm masses roll
towering over it, ever

I float
between dream and deed
Sleeplessly

I babble a bit
wading in acquiescence
Songless

A big party, we

laugh and sing, louder, wilder,


and more and more -- free.

The birds sing for me,

yes, they like me, and the hemp --


seeds next to my chair.

The dog runs in, slips

on the linoleum floor --


and sniffs at my chair.

I waved back to him,

to the fluttering greeting --


A sleeve without arm.

We are daydreaming

in the imitation cave --


of the Grand Hotel.

I've achieved something,

now I'm feeling emptiness --


which I want to fill.

Living to the full,

always searching for balance --


and finding myself.

Early morning mist,

hanging about in the buzz --


of the rising sun.

True love! After all,

the love potion was a fraud --


but who believes that?

A man opens up

in the arms of a woman --


He softens and talks.

The sand wants to be

here, or on the other side --


not in the middle.

The heart and dagger

on the dark jar lure me, ask --


me to pick it up.

I paid it, I swept

it away and forgot it --


for today's new day!

My father is dead,

he says nothing, but I know --


what he would say now.

Karma: taking care

of yourself and your neighbours --


now and now and now.

For hours they're chasing

each other across the plains:


thundery showers.

Croaking frogs at night,

a horse running back and forth --


but you can't see it.

They can be loving:

father talks to the dog and --


my son lures the cat.

There the waxing Earth

is low in the sky, lying --


in its starry crib.

Making up stories

together, that is the core --


of relationships.

While talking, we find

in our circular thoughts what --


we already knew.

We live a sober life, enough
is enough for me, and reserves
are necessary according to you

Everything is insured, luckily
no loans, we are working hard
because otherwise one has nothing

The children have their own lives
they won't take care of us
and are already asking for part

of their portion of inheritance, but it's stuck
in stone, in vaults, and in your head
that also wants to cover the coverage

People should grow up
and take care of themselves
reap their own harvest

though we could share more
relying on mutual aid
not just on our own character

in which lies the seed
the seed of greed
Our fear

Tea and gruntsinging

of old Tibetans before --


they get in the air.

Everything happens

to me, nonetheless I am --


the protagonist.

Mass of supporters

times corruption-degree squared --


makes a dynasty.

Without falling I get

ahead of my legs, it is --


quite an exercise!

Differences draw boundaries
and there are words for it:
baby, child, man and woman

red, brown, yellow, stupid and smart
black, white, compatriot, barbarian
We know all about it

there is a reason
that we are innocent
and others offenders

There are words for it
and answers too: punishment, pest
crash, bombs and grenades

manslaughter, hunting, gas and fire
all within the boundaries
of own laws first

At home, on this side and
at home, on that side of the border
people wish for peace

It is summer fair,

I hear it at home, passing --


me turn after turn.

Not dinner time yet, on bed
I am drawing you, your back
the book and the red candle
the almost empty mirror image

We've seen enough
of the city today and no longer
immediately jump on each other
even though we're on vacation

I love you equally profound -
looking, drawing and feeling
how absently totally present
you are, your bare shoulder

which I caress with my eyes
your full attention
for the story and for me
as soon as you put the book down

It's something from years
elusively there
even if we don't pay attention to it
or if it's absent for a while

There is a drum roll

behind the quiet houses –


everyone is there.

The cat does not move,

she is observing the moon –


the hypnotic ball.

I count all my friends

and am left with five fingers --


to shake hands with you!

I like to run with

the hare and hunt with the hounds --


Is that my freedom?