Nicolas Born Poems

How dead serious this coming and going
up ladders stairways
when someone turns away and actually
leaves with just a word
...

You can't make a living
competing with reality
you can't live on reality either
you can survive an operation
...

You cannot make a living
competing with reality
nor can you make a living off reality
but you can survive an intrusion
...

Without it really ever having begun
I'm in a big group of people
contemporaries
they seem to think my body is the homeland
...

As it seems to me the harsh light
in which I, silent, slumped, continue to breathe
- cleared-out room, chairs on tables
I was never so haphazard
...

I feel nothing and move through silent motorcades.
The world is wrapped in golden paper.
Electricians groan.
...

The dormant
tram tracks rapidly paved over -
waiting for the olden days again
like a return to handwriting
...

With such a big car we're bound to come through
dead or alive
in the back of the neck a music
that never stops
...

Under the covers three a.m.
I want to be off to the BETTER WORLD
this is the wall
I have to go into
...