Jan Wagner Biography

weighing up my words to you -
silent couples drifting to and fro,
beds of fallen leaves, the naked trees,
the blooms of fences blue as verdigris,
...

the gaze was gripped by the mirror's golden vice:
she with red nails, I with white
cloth, covered like a museum-piece.
...

we met them in the woods within a clearing:
two expeditions passing through the twilight
eyeing one another silently. between us the nervy
telegraphic buzzing of a swarm of gnats.
...

the days' light is running out
and an hour lasts a mere ten minutes.
the trees were playing their last colours.
...

behind the bar facing the door
the framed photograph of the football team
smiling heroes whose faces betray nothing
...