WELCOME HYGIENE
What you said was undiluted.
And it proved effective too:
I can’t see a thing. My head is clean
now and white. It’s done.
First I pushed my eyes in
and tilted my head back.
Then I filled up the holes
with eau de javel and white spirit.
That anything goes is a delusion.
It’s the air that is tenuous.
Give me time to come round.
Bury me where I requested
water and let me be – out of reach –
of fish.
Translated by John Irons
+++
This is the century of buttons.
Every photo’s sceptically examined,
even though it shows reality.
Becomingly lit and charmingly framed
every pool seems well worth it (private).
This is the century of benefactors
and bed sores. Genuine sheepskin
lessens the forces of friction.
Synthetic sheepskin is not advised.
This is the century of the hard-to-close peignoir.
This is the century too of medleys alas,
of sheet-white luxury and voodoo and stocks.
Every day sees fellow human beings die.
We’re certain of well-nigh nothing.
But we show our body as it is.
Translated by John Irons
+++
The volunteer shows well
if it blows. The volunteer conspicuously
wears a badge, a roomy reefer
along with a money belt, hip-slung
holiday-style, in which there are already several
donations.
Volunteers are sexually
highly active. They often like to walk around
completely naked, or at least with bared love handles.
My specific question:
do you know the non-profit Sunlight Foundation?
Translated by John Irons
+++
I HEAR THAT YOU HAVE STABILIZED
- I hear that you have stabilized.
It’s me, no, that’s not something
you’d eat or utter,
too crude, I understand that,
something
against the young, is that what
you want, against the young?
- I am disgusted by the mini-supermarket,
by the smell of the devil in the cornflakes,
by the everywhere inembroidered …
- Don’t say such things.
They can turn out to be last words.
Leave the big box with dots in it closed too.
Alright.
You can roll your eyes
to the cable spaghetti tail. Do you
perhaps do you want trailing lane trailing lane, yes, spit it out.
Just you wait until I or until we – is that gasping normal?
You seem to beam
approval with every word,
graspless, knee-deep.
Translated by Diane Butterman
+++
'EVERYONE CAN DO IT'
In our country we deal with pent up pain
by assuming that everyone can
paint, hate, break in, murder and deal with pain.
So there is always a pulling and a pushing,
what else did you expect?
A push away, a roll away (no, too detached)
or a pushover or a rollover (no, much too clownish)
or a turnover, yes, a turnover sounds good (think fish-finger).
All of that first and especially directed inside.
The rest will come later.
Translated by Diane Butterman
+++
IS THAT REALLY SOMETHING
He throws her on the bed, it has to be done,
the polo neck must come off,
the rest as well, a rip doesn’t matter, he must quickly
lie with his skin
upon her skin; she is hypothermic.
Whether that’s really something for me? Of course.
If it works with those pores, then she’ll be saved!
I am old enough; I know
to what combinations this context leads.
She sweats and she coughs and she must now feel him.
The cabin – what a beautiful cabin – is a cabin
round a rat. For life.
Translated by Diane Butterman
+++
All the light-hearted may proceed to the Dandelion salon.
Much the same applies to anyone who is strong and spontaneous.
Sociable or tough people can also go with Geoffrey.
The rest can stay here to stir
the primer before then applying a thin layer of paint.
Someone there has a question, please use the wireless mike.
What about the self-assured people?
Can I just have your attention please. Also self-assured people
may follow Geoffrey or Sylvia to the Dandelion.
Translated by Diane Butterman
+++
For me
the dynamic graph emerges from the ground
much more widely spread out than expected.
In multi-coloured, imposing rows
grow
the three-dimensional columns:
indispensable information
from the spectrum of happiness to suffering.
I don’t want to be alone! You are not alone!
Everything extendible from 0 to 100%.
Translated by Diane Butterman
+++
Thus appeared
the solitary
Pattex-witch Migraine backstage
with all her paraphernalia,
her urns and tension cables, her Steradent,
her encrypted inheritances, her serif typefaces,
her containers filled with containers
and her full imaginary control-orchestra.
And she remained silent.
Translated by Diane Butterman
+++
And she rubbed
over her legs.
‘I can arrange and turn on voyeurs in such a way
that they no longer long to be a part of something else.’
She opened a jerrycan of Dettol.
She freshened up the water and reclined in it.
‘Really nice and fresh’, she said, ‘this ancient water is nice and fresh
again. Come and join me. With your dodgy connections
and your perceptions.’
Translated by Diane Butterman
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