The enclosed city Poem by Eva Ström

The animals felt uneasy sooner than the humans did.
They wandered in huge herds out into the sunset.
The white raven flappef its wings.

The court was filled by the friends of both victim and murderer.
They had all taken time off from school.
Small Japanese women determined the chicken's sex.

For the sake of egg production all the male chicks were killed.
They hung in surprise for a moment on the conveyour belt
before beeing ground down in the rubbish-grinder.

The eighteen-year-old murderer drew a comic strip of the murder.
Both he and the victim were turned into match-stick-men.
The girl lad no sex but a rectangular skirt.

The throat is bare. The city besieged.
The goat with the gold teeth slaughtered.
The lorries are trying in vain to approach the enclosed city.

Translation by Robin Fulton