Paper Trash Archives

Dear fairy godmother,

Please transform my skin

Make it translucent

And glow from within

Replace my heavy bones

With frail fairy features

In the absence of light

Thrive all deep sea creatures

At the bottom of the trench

I won’t float away

Compressed by an ocean

That forces me to stay

Dear fairy godmother,

Please move me

To the bottom

Of the sea

Yours,

We were promised the sky

In midnight blue

With constellations to follow

And a full moon true

But

then

nightfall

came

and

so

did

the

rain

Now we each walk lonely

No stars to guide

Cold street lights only

Our shadows can’t hide

Distorted by puddles

Sharp shapes on the ground

The flowers we were promised

They all have drowned

Mimicry

Among the great monarchs’ migration

An orange bumper sticker from a gas station

Like the butterfly’s replication

I have a plastic reputation

Kalte Finger

Auf warmer Haut

Flüssiger Saum

Der Gebirge baut

Glühende Wangen

In blauwarmem Licht

Hungrige Lippen

Hauchend durchbricht

Fiebriges Flüstern

In zittrigem Ton

Gleißende Hitze

Wird reißender Strom

Ruß

Licht im Wald

Motten im Bauch

Herzfarb‘ne Früchte

An jedem Strauch

Moos immer grün

Auch wenn Wasser fehlt

Schwaden schwinden schwarz

Du hast Feuer gewählt

Holz zu Kohle

Nur Rauch - kein Halt

Erinnerung aus Asche

Wie Staub - grau - alt

In deiner Tasche

Letzte Krumen kalt

Das Bild hast du

The art of whimsy

On kilo meters of beaches

Full of pebbles and shells

The collector’s hand reaches

For what wind’s whisper tells

At the most tender brush

A rock turns porcelain

Each object a promising hush

Of the next great treasure plain

The seagull’s grey feather

A tiny fairy’s bed

Pull the vision strings together

Does it carry outside the head?

At times the collector stumbles

Some fairytales cannot be told

Remain inaudible mumbles

Gasoline

Solid

Pressed together tightly

Like pages of a book - hips

Preserve a sword lily

Sharp gasps escape lips

Liquid

Liquified body parts

Confined by ribs

Caging hearts

Melt under fingertips

Gaseous

Glimmering mouths baptize

All spaces in between

Flammable chemicals vaporize

The street is busy all day and night and the dozens of skyscraper windows glisten so bright that only a singular star is visible in the dark sky, from time to time accompanied by blinking airplanes.

And on the other side of your giant window, there is your bed.

The sheets like a spongy cake soaked and covered in a thick layer of sweet sugary syrup.

It’s like we landed on the shimmering glaze - two tiny winged creatures - entangled our translucent bodies in the sticky coat and are now unable to free ourselves from its soft surface.

With a primitive shake

You shatter, smash, break

My protective layer plain

Now you can’t outrun fate

The mark of my visceral stain

Will be the cause of your pain

With the first crack in my shell

You were tied to Hades’ claim

The escaping sweet smell

Crimson red like a spell

Persephone’s tale shall tell

How I take you to hell

The body’s inertia

The sound has tailed away

All cliffs are sealed

The last witness to stay

Only the cold has revealed

Because nightfall’s blanket is thin

A shadow silhouette on the wall

Enough to let uninvited guests rush in

And set in motion the fall

Fictitious forces take over

Spinning like a chairoplane

Centrifugal forces will reopen

The end of the world

2 - Two wings of the same angel’s heart,

0 - Never together - never apart,

8 - Always longing for something more,

4 - Forever caught in neither nor.

But even at the world’s end,

When all galaxies have swirled

And merged into one,

I still wish to be curled

Up in your arm.

Like a soft and sweet promise,

An early morning’s shy glim

Calling for you from afar,

A beam of light - so dim.

You long to follow its call

Illusional sparkles on your skin,

Like a moth in early fall,

Can’t withdraw from this sin.

The shimmer lured you in,

Caught in my web of moss

You understand your besiege.

But there is no tunnel to cross,

No other side to reach -

In my cave, you cannot win.

Head hanging low

Nowhere to turn to

Nowhere to go

In the absence of light

Frost’s whisper was right

At least for today

nothing gold can stay

Measured, weighted, collected -

Every sentence, every word

Sorted, labelled in a filing cabinet,

heavy like whale - light as bird.

The emotional archive’s features

Careful calculations - no one must see

To hide all signs of deep sea creatures

has merged itself deep down with my vein,

everywhere yet nowhere,

we’ll never be separated again.

Trying to push itself out in unholy,

frightening grimaces,

succeeding at times - painfully slowly

in liquid singularity at least.

A railway system - trains of thoughts,

Crossroads and traffic jams in knots,

Their swish and swoosh all that she hears,

A six-lane highway between her ears.

But in the storm of waves and spume

Filled with saline seaweed perfume,

When water comes crashing down,

Pebbles and highways - they drown.

When the wind threatens to take her with,

Tugging at her core, limbs, hair,

Hugging her with salt-heavy air,