the annihilation of fathers
or
shit scared to answer the phone

oh shit       omigod
his blanketed eyes scrabbling for images on the board
making still-lifes from feeder-cups and piss-bottles
bleeding       bleeding on rubber sheets
tugging away at his white harness
so hard to keep clean       she says
a glitch in the body
minced gut disclosing itself
seems "the worst will soon be over       soon with eyes
covered & bound feet"

hurry to bread the wound       grub for the worms
& that's a revelation       a clumpish       "error"
the stuffed skin of a man like nothing so much as
the wurst of memory
"won't be long before you're stuffing me in there"


Anna Hoffmann
translated by Catherine Hales
German original from Pandoras Box © Parasitenpresse, Cologne 2004