INCOMPREHENSIBLE (I) Poem by Elke Erb

Between gas stove and table the thought

a lonely donkey at the edge of a field
a distant - Bulgaria! - memory
Apparently lonely donkey -

Between gas stove and table the thought
that we die -

the donkey does belong to someone,
it's hitched to a little cart, behind them
a huge corn field, the plain -

the thought
that we die -
down a maelstrom - gone -

there's nothing else in the world.
As far as I can see. As my train
passes en route to the Black Sea -

Incomprehensible

that we die -
down a maelstrom - gone -
drained, drawn.

between gas stove and table the thought

a lonely donkey at the edge of a field


(II) DONKEY

The donkey stands, with extinguished eyes.
A gray stone, leaves this life, remains.

The beard of Abraham, a sign, above the field.
The wondrous sign in miniature: the beard of the goat.

Goat, goat, train gone by, abandoned donkey.
Horizon parallel to edge of field.

(III) GOAT

and goat beard, puts her front hooves
on the rim of the bucket. Thus raised up
looks over the fence. That animal.