matching eyes, the surrounding artificial parks,
swollen words,
we are small, and leave no trace
every future is only chance
I do not even know
what will happen five minutes from now
I just listen to you
watch your lips
touch the sad lines of your face
I am weak
a thin branch
fragile, sorrowful and still
I do not understand
what is going on around me
things happen
they laugh, they cry
they sleep
and if, sometimes, I feel free
I always fall somewhere
time
which I no longer dare to count
devours me in the end
digests me
and I let it, helpless
while I think of you, of Mum
and of my childhood
The greatest spectacle on our planet,
Its greatest event, is not the football World Cup,
But the act of self-destruction we are engaged in:
The climate crisis, the extinction of species,
The damage inflicted by our industry and economy,
Inequality, the pillaging of nature,
And the slow, systematic destruction of our world.
And yet, whenever I open any news outlet,
From the BBC to The Guardian, all the way to The New York Times,
Everywhere I look, they are publishing thousands
of articles and photographs about football,
Endlessly idiotic celebrity stories, recipes,
Inane images - and almost nothing about reality.
The press is one of the driving forces of this age of stupidity.
It is hard to believe that we really are this absurd.
It is hard to accept that this age is truly so morally bankrupt,
And it is profoundly sad that I have to live here,
In this fucked-up, primitive civilisation,
Among eager, cheerful, paid-to-smile fools.
This world is horrifying.
I would write you something beautiful,
raindrops set to music,
but I can't any more.
When I try to imagine a feeling,
it no longer works.
Am I broken?
Can I no longer feel?
Has the loneliness of all these years emptied me out?
I see no embrace.
I feel no want for a kiss.
I cannot imagine any intimacy.
I would only work,
do what has to be done.
Cleaning, preparing food, staring at the garden,
watching the harvestmen,
smiling at my plants,
being glad of the rain,
waiting for the night.
I do not speak for days.
I miss you like spring,
which is gone by June.
It is like something one must always wait for,
and when it is here, it hides,
so that one has to wait again.
And by the time you play this through with it
again and again,
you will be wrinkled,
and you will die of it,
as of every love
that caused too much pain.