Fremde, etranger, stranger.
Alle Tage
Der Krieg wird nicht mehr erklärt, sondern fortgesetzt. Das Unerhörte ist alltäglich geworden. Der Held bleibt den Kämpfen fern. Der Schwache ist in die Feuerzonen gerückt. Die Uniform des Tages ist die Geduld, die Auszeichnung der armselige Stern der Hoffnung über dem Herzen. Er wird verliehen, wenn nichts mehr geschieht, wenn das Trommelfeuer verstummt, wenn der Feind unsichtbar geworden ist und der Schatten ewiger Rüstung den Himmel bedeckt. Er wird verliehen für die Flucht von den Fahnen, für die Tapferkeit vor dem Freund, für den Verrat unwürdiger Geheimnisse und die Nichtachtung jeglichen Befehls.
Burn Out
Everything is fine: a means to endure news cycles, historic cycles, menstrual cycles. This is walking home after work, crawling into bed naked. Night, quiet with snow. I am an empty bank account. I am a pylon glowing in the dark. I am a primal scream. I am not here. The body speaks first. If that doesn’t work, the mind empties: a crate of crabs scuttling toward nothingness. Authoritarianism blossoms like a corpse flower: foul men ...
desacuerdo
(a mi hermana) (el rugido ensordecedor del mar se interpone entre las dos) yo le digo: creo que estamos ahogadas ella responde: no No estamos ahogadas yo le digo: yacemos a la par en el fondo del mar ella responde: no Estamos de pie en la orilla yo le digo: de verdad creo que ya nos ahogamos ella responde: no Estamos respirando muy bien yo le digo: a mí no me entra aire ...
disagreement
(to my sister) (the deafening sound of the sea comes between us both) I say to her: I think we’re drowned she replies: no We’re not drowned I say to her: we’re lying side by side at the bottom of the sea she replies: no We are standing on the shore I say to her: I truly believe we’ve already drowned she replies: no We are breathing just fine I say to her: for me no air comes in ...
Great Things Have Happened
We were talking about the great things that have happened in our lifetimes; and I said, “Oh, I suppose the moon landing was the greatest thing that has happened in my time.” But, of course, we were all lying. The truth is the moon landing didn’t mean one-tenth as much to me as one night in 1963 when we lived in a three-room flat in what once had been the mansion of some Victorian merchant prince (our kitchen had been a clothes closet, I’m sure), on a street where by now nobody lived who could afford to live anywhere else. That night, the three of us, Claudine, Johnnie and me, woke up at half-past four in the morning and ate cinnamon toast together. ...
Каждый день
Война не будет объявлена, просто проведена. Неслыханное стало привычным. Герой не явился на поле брани. Слабый попал в зону огня. Униформа наших дней – терпение, знак отличия – неяркая звезда надежды под сердцем. Он будет награжден, если ничего не произойдет, если барабанный бой умолкнет, если враг станет неразличим, и тень укроет орудие неба. Он будет награжден за бегство от знамен, за отвагу в дружбе, за выдачу недостойных секретов и невыполнение позорных приказов.