i have been taken ill
skylines and cemeteries fill my thoughts
dead men walk with me in my dreams
inches away from my heart
a stone stopped beating
a girl plucks the heads of the sparrows
that dozed off on my windowsill
while mumbling to herself
some strange wiegenlieds –
and the war rages on for another century.

the telephone rings in the other room
for the fourth time and no one answers
the afternoon sun still waits for my prayers
i hear the entrance door opening and closing
as if the time-of-death pendulum would swing by
every two or three minutes
patiently watching over me
while graceful brand-new ambulances
wait outside the door silently
but with their bright red and blue lights
pulsating of schadenfreude –
and the war rages on for another century

i was left with only one memory
i remember a small german town
a half-frozen river
a white calf (or a white dog) desperately trying
to swim to the other side
while the narrator voice tells the story of its demise
a watchtower a labyrinth of narrow streets
and the cold hand i was fearlessly holding
as if to say come, i know where we’re going
just minutes before ending up
somewhere in the mid twentieth century
(this is how love was like, I thought)
while trying to turn them into clocks
I failed and bent all crosses into swastikas –
and the war raged on for another century.