My Pennsylvania Yard

Author: Utz Rachowski
Translator: Lyz Pfister

The mocking bird
was not wrong

high up
in your yard

the brick red
cardinal couple

sat there

on the wooden
unpainted fence

nesting robins
survived the storm

rocking
in the swaying pine

by the window
we watched

Philly the black cat
waiting down below

an ashen squirrel
tickling the trunk

fortune or misfortune
this is your world

and it was mine

the bird’s twitter
is a trick

fortune or misfortune

whatever his destiny
and our purpose

never lying
he was always up high

in your yard

though for a while
we forgot him in the game

he never lied to us

we never heard
his nevermore

that in the evenings
of those fortunate days

echoed in the voice
of the raven

Pulsnitz April 24, 2013

Original © Utz Rachowski
Translation © Lyz Pfister