Author: Gerhard Falkner
Translator: Rosmarie Waldrop
tank & drum
nowhere an inside to berlin, city
flattered into beaming capital
bodies resounding
with progress, progross, polkas
years of lording it they mete out traffic
from one saddest to another thousand
next best basta blue
shady side of a slope beaming
as if there were things that last
as if the triad
time-space-death
did not lie otherwise in state. but
after a dozen long
trecks distance locks shut
speed pulps beauty
then only the word counts
the smallest home we can share
Original © Gerhard Falkner
Translation © Rosmarie Waldrop