One lunch in the village doesn't make a poem yet

By Nicolas Born
Translated by Sam Langer.

here it is, however

seen out the window and also

from inside

a brown old sofa appears

that was already the bit with the sofa

it'll never really take root

like the black forest fir also doesn't.

This place is bad

what do we do with it once we begin

our NEW LIFE in the cities

when we crack the cities and blow their cover

in favour of a love story?

Now I have to be careful that I don't take root

grey guttering runs around the house just as you

run around me, as though I'd taken root:

"should I wash the curtains today

or tomorrow or are they still all right?"

"Leave it Mum I'm heading off tomorrow."

She looks up astounded: "Tomorrow? Already?"

I throw her a melancholy look

then the carpet rail in the garden on which three

small birds have now taken root.

At this point the heating turns

itself on in the basement.

"It'll get warmer again now" she says

and at that a great warmth emanates from her.

Click here to listen to Nicolas Born reading this poem in German on Lyrikline.org.