Wolfgang Steinmann

Marriage

They both had been quiet a while. And now
The room lay in darkness, heavy and gray.
The man looked at her and the wife heard him say:

We shall not become like each other or bow.
For everyone suffers his very own pains.
My grandparents there in these picture frames,
They sometimes give me a terrible start:
Could you only see the letters they wrote;
The words look alike, they equally float,
It is really quite hard
To tell the writers apart. -
… You know, it's not good to suffer together,
For the pain that is shared is hurting less.
On my heart put your hands or press
On my wrists with your palm:
Can you feel what I think of every realm?
And I cannot tell you what it's about.
Never, never turn into me,
And I too will fight equally.

The woman, she thought for a while, and then -
These are the words which heard the man:

You have taken away the people from me,
The people too close, the people too loud;
To take up my life I am finally free,
The life which by others I was not allowed.