5.16.2022

before the shards of my life I stand

the tear plunges 
to the ground in the morning when before the shards 
of my life I stand and of my writing 
on this dark morning in June 
that like my grave 
screaming ghastly the jackdaws 
and deadly screams of crows 
while multivoiced rosaries 
whirl the bride of the armchair's back 
into the roaring of their lust 
in the garden below the collared turtledoves 
billing and cooing below in the garden 
while a girl crosses herself 
before the menu-board leaning against the inn's door 
to louse 
this dirty figure of my soul 
on a towel I suddenly discover 
my initials 
the crooked window shutter 
the dog with the snake's gaze 
mirror up the stairs in a dream 
 
[Friederike Mayröcker {1924-2021} 'Nausea', from Poetry (October 1998), trans. from the German by Margitt Lehbert]

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