the steps remembered the dark, the break
between lessons in the woods, the ringing above the staircase, the beatings
that went with the nouns, the mnemonic salt hunched up
& deaf behind the ears
  time stopped, from
childhood there was something
  ready for later, always
    it had been valid
       longer or sooner the sentence
is a salt
of broken birds behind one’s ears, that

  the benches could not
survive us, the inks, palely
  the curses & grimaces sank
into the salt the hatred
stood by, always prepared, above
the base began the ruptures, the rivers

& conurbations, before the urals
  metastases of mortar
  painted over with oil, behind
kamtschatka, hardened, limed, as far as
sachalin I stood
  against the wall, that
  amurdaja & syrdaja were flowing, described
crying at djamila’s, explain
how you would
have cried yourself & what is the plough, is
the true weight of the apparent teaching
  the scholochov horse collar
  around the neck only a scarf
  am I virgin land
  are you my curse, anvil

or kortschagin, the sick
  and the freezing hand was the skin
  on the wall & the lime & the gravity
pressed on the lips, singly & whispering:
dear wire dear god frau
bakuski let it be, but see to it, a weeping

goes off
into the ovens, off
through the wall, off
into the ash above the yard, but
   what is weeping, the gravity
   failed, the light
   misted up in the contre-jour, the stars

climbed on
the panzer carriages across the glass
on the taped window casements
out into the air space
above the pact

the sleep
stood by, always prepared & the I
stood against the wall, the base
was cool on the lips
burnt, only
those who could get away
were expelled, they now came
back silently from the ships
up the tables
to their salzgitter
lodgings, complemented

the platform, the oil & the foreign land
  with their burden, complemented
   the progress of things, the waiting
    with stupidity, the smelting
      with gazes into the dark

out there & clods
with shame, which

burst at last
  under the footprints
.. above the air shaft
   below the yard duty
hope, too, stood by, always prepared, an
iron handrail

went round the yard, the chestnuts, the heads
flew
  back to the post-war
   the quark with steamed
    potatoes back to the first
roll call, traitor to the plough: we went

round in circles, we
circled the milk
in vessels of walking
scabbed our steps
the suite
of a coarse darkness

locked the vault, stretched

on the weave of a plank bed, that
   was noon, sleep

lay blinded on hands, headbands
   of sweat:

they had cut down the wick.
came in.
extinguished the light
  between fingers; wash-room, entrance
& daydream of figures of speech; steps towards the window & waving

of all lace net curtains, frau
bakuski must die, oha, frau bakuski
...blindness & silence under the bedcover

coloured the shadows
above the eyes, a
childish pus, the real blue
stayed locked away

in their corners, did
shame not stand by, always prepared
in the course of time
white chestnuts mature in our pockets, the lark

  stabs dead the lark sunday, the lamp
  in the gravel, the dress
  of the drinkers & their patios & bottles
matures in their pockets, the stone

is a draft on time: the bird
dying in flight, the eye
stares at the sky & in
  deserted orbits

circles the dead hoarder, sleep, hypnos
  bitter shoe & satchel circle, bag & box, the
  haversack circles, the gym bag
circles out there, sleep, hypnos, circles

of depressions rapt in coffee ground,
inflamed, in the washroom section
   in the laughter of sheep
   there grew
another seventy stone huts, meat
batteries across the hills
  at the edge of the night, is

the sleep child ready now, always prepared
he leans out there, wobbly
on his broken gate
in his
playpen behind the moon, half

in filth & half in death, strike up, let’s rip, I am
prepared:

   father raises his left hand
   strikes his right hand
   strikes head
   bowed the child
   out the mother
   shakes the little dream
   bloody from the little tree, look at
   me i talk to you
   with tears inside, with
   creation inside in the blood
& all
   bitten-off points of her crown.