Author: Peggy Neidel
Translator: Bradley Schmidt
while I stroll along the frozen canal
a hologram appears before me in the form of my fear
a spineless jellyfish
I spit the imitation into the air
the creature flies to the ground, pulsing
my shoes find the way
I slip on the technosphere
like a second skin, intoxicated
by the idea of being something
that I simultaneously have
I took the next combination
grasping with my arms reach for something
that looks like you
if there is no fate
who is actually ruining whom?
a well, streams of data
we are quite alone in private
we finger the water with sensors
blur the lines of the garden
petals fall
into the idyll
without extensions in the panopticon
masked by junk
they’ve got burnout and are waiting
for someone to patch them up
a promise, the glass domes
depending on the light’s angle
who takes its cues from what?
no-one sees it straight away
we’re walking in different directions
why did you come here?
surely you want to exchange memories
but you’re not interested in any answers
just this shadow
that your dream casts
that was the reason for your journey
you cling to the dream
in that building at the entrance of the hall
but a pane shatters
and then the city runs away from your dreams
I run until you’re just a speck.
From Peggy Neidel, weiß © poetenladen Verlag, 2013
Translation © Bradley Schmidt