Born without a hymen, ears Poem by Brigitte Oleschinski

hanging on your lips, I was your pleading
echo. I can only answer. When the wind catches me, I answer.
When the water in the empty foundations glistens, I answer.
You called me

like the squall of wind over the nettled slopes when a host
of crows ascend from the tops of the cranes. Your call
tore the voice from my body, I sang.

Shameful limbs, scattered
in singing. Only dogs

covered their track

translated by Andrew Shields, 1999