DEATHWISH DRIVER WORKING GIRL

Author: Arne Rautenberg
Translator: Ken Cockburn

DEATHWISH DRIVER
bruno schmitz / ground floor left

i will appear and you will see
me with your own eyes by the crash
barrier behind me mere nothingness

on the snaking asphalt they skid they
choke press down on the pedal i will
appear and you will see me

with your own eyes by the crash
barrier behind me mere nothingness
before me your daughters and sons

the only going back left to me
is a suck on the cigar the smoke
i draw it down deep maybe

more of me are coming behind me
flashing lights whatever i blank out now counts
for nothing whatever i fail to notice

was always what was left
of the oncoming traffic and the faint
reflection of hares’ eyes on the verge then

suddenly i will appear and you will see
me with your own eyes by the crash barrier
behind me mere nothingness when

will you send the next dazzler? for
only what appears from in front can
pass i drive as long as my engine turns

in it my monotony burns then
i turn off the light and if
you are in luck i drive by

WORKING GIRL
nicole / ground floor right

the last tired dyed strands blonde
like marilyn grow out of these years
when diamonds cavort on sunday evening

a carnival of bedroom carpets
the curtains drawn (just a narrow slit)
the monsters look on some guy

lies back and drinks his aperitif acquires
a taste for wrinkled hands and the
unblinking eyelashes of back-combed beauty

the happiness of true nudists far removed
from all rays of hope oh man when will you come
true i would devotedly implore you

big strong man oh oh oh yes touch
me or else i cannot believe i am real
a hypochondriac shadow sitting

on checked polyester if i can no longer
be beautiful why should i not just
die why should i not just

wait until a madman goes for me with
a knife why oh why are the strands
growing out of these years

Geisterfahrer and Straßenmädchen are from a sequence
of twelve monologues, Das Dunkle Haus (‘The Dark House’),
published in edit. Papier für neue Texte, Leipzig, 2002.