Coventrieren

They were not known to abide by rules of war
as attested by one Gaul, who spoke about their breaches before
but I find myself suprised, and sometimes amused
everytime
this comes to pass
and I am stranded with a silly expression on my face
on my side of the sidewalk
as I keep the conversation going,
like never really happened

but my battlements are on fire,
my aide de camp has been slaughtered
and forced to keep the upper lip stiff
I smile and joke
while they raze my house down
and pillage the orchard
that shall no longer bear fruit

A Change of Chronotope

Sitting there in the sun
on a bench I no longer recognized
I heard the birds and realized I was free
Life was no longer measured by the distances
of space and time leading me to or away from the beloved

Giessen Revisited

Ha ha- not quite Jeremy Irons, but hey!
it does feel like a World War away that I was trying to become a part of this place
and today, as people were showing me where various rooms were
and were helping me plug certain things into various sockets
in all their helpfulness
it felt just like another venue
I was expected to perform at
and perform I did,
saluting at one instant
my startled audience
with a handwave.

The Center Holds :-)

lest we forget

Swedish Mountain Passes

Early in the evening,
A duck cuts into the purple,
Ducks into the dark blue
Of the surface that is rippling
In the calm air

It is the breath of the ducks that’s rippling the surface
It’s your voice whispering “Swedish mountain passes”

Swedish mountain passes
Were the last words you said to me
The last words I heard you speak
That actually meant anything

Swedish mountain passes

Swedish mountain passes
Of high and low altitudes
where either side is laden with fruit
with blueberries, mountainberries, strawberries
swedish mountain passes
that are laden with fruit
with names I cannot speak

it is your ghost that haunts this lake
this evening,
the ripples on the surface,
the face I have sat across at the table

Early evening by the lake
A duck cuts through the deep purple
Dives into the unspeakable abyss
To the rhythm of your voice repeating
Swedish mountain passes.

Uppsala

Here I am once again in the land of smelly supermarkets and shiny happy people--- well never mind the statistics for suicides, that how I know them.
Am sitting in a sunnier and happier version of the Stockwerk in Heidelberg where everyone brings a smile into the kitchen decked with Swedish furniture, and where I am sitting working on my paper.
I had a nice chat with Stella in her blue-white flowe patterned dress, on which I complimented her, to which she said it belonged to her grandmother and which, she said, she made to fit her slenderer body by sewing it up! Very talented girl who's thinking of going to Denmark for a year in order to secure a place as a medical student.
The plan is to go to Friday prayers soon, I hope we catch some of the glorious sun that I can see from my table position.

Babel

we used to speak the same language,
love between us was a given

when we turned to the sun
our skin used to turn to the same colour,
our hands would shrink to the same shape

but now I lose you in this multitude
for I understand not what you say,
these towers, this curse
that we brought upon ourselves.