Alfred Lichtenstein Strange Poems
- 1. Lonely Watchman
City and beloved are far behind.
I am so betrayed and alone.
Slowly I move from one
Leg to the other.
... - 2. To Frida
(Dedicated to L.L.)
Walls separate us.
... - 3. Smoke On The Field
Lene Levi went out in the evening,
Mincing, her skirt bunched up,
Through the long, empty streets
Of a suburb.
... - 4. Monday In The Courtyard Of The Barracks
The heat sticks closely to the gun and to the hand.
It pricks the eyes. Nothing remained forgotten.
The troops stepped, half drunk, into the fire.
The non-coms stand rigidly in front.
... - 5. The Grenade
First a bright, brief drum roll,
A bang and explosion into the blue day.
Then a noise, like rockets climbing on
Iron rails. Fear and long silence.
... - 6. The Athlete
A man walked back and forth in his torn slippers
In the small room
He inhabited.
He thought about the events
... - 7. Songs To Berlin
1
O you Berlin, you colorful stone, you beast.
You cast me with street lamps like briars.
... - 8. A Barkeeper's Coarse Complaint
It's enough to make me throw the chair through the panes of the
mirror Into the street -
There I sit with raised eyebrows:
All bars are full,
... - 9. Rainy Night
The day is ruined. The sky is drunk.
Like false pearls, little stumps
Of chopped up light lie around and reveal
A glimpse of streets, a few clumps of houses.
...
