Concrete steps, the seas Poem by Steffen Popp

Movement (air), sea color (green), a hedgehog (the technique of a coyote
to flip it onto its back) — your heart, the nearby port
stretches itself on its sleep-edges. Feed in sacks, munitions boxes
the unnatural hoof of a donkey in brackish water —

the sea shows you banks (the borders), you sleep in your states
there are secret symbols, towers (looking out at the sea), antiaircraft defense
engineers with airman caps — you count them on the beaches
they are hinges, and they connect you (like script) to all things.

Translated by Donna Stonecipher