Hinge-Angel Poem by Barbara Köhler

for Beat Reichlin

things which have nothing to do
with me nor wish to the people
coming and going they remain
strange to me: order and the other
half of life and a time like a half-
life in different disintegration radi-
ation of things let go from the gotten-
hold-of come down and contaminate
the grounds over which i go: fallen
from a faith in the absolute that did
not hold like all promises with
held the thing lying on the ground
the facts: keep one's distance and let
go lift up the grounding keep it in
sight things people empty time
to forget what was good or evil
to fulfill - things let me go and
see a thing of impossibility a no-
thing it could love it could go

translated by Donna Stonecipher