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]