To him who has shall be given. But what you have can also be taken away. And you can also lose what you have if you don’t respect it or disregard it, the beautiful nature of your homeland, for example. This is just as true in Brandenburg as it is in Lauchringen.
Chronology of Concrete
The inhabitants of Lauchringen,
Sunny dispositions with little depth,
Were delighted that their small village
(once there were two)
Was being built up with residential silos, blocks,
Which local real estate companies euphemistically
Advertised as „city villas“.
Next to them, temples of consumption and
Supermarkets were being erected to relieve the
Neighbouring Swiss of their money.
While tree after tree and field after field dwindled,
The profiteers shook their little wallets.
After all, it was going like clockwork.
Later generations will shake their heads instead
And wonder how their parents could have
So senselessly concreted over
Their beautiful homeland.
* * *
Newspaper Sonnet
I opened the newspaper, read this article
About an industrial complex in Brandenburg
And of drinking water that is running out
And of a rosy future thanks to great technology,
The false myth of individualisation and prosperity,
Of a brilliant entrepreneur who stands above it all,
Of local politicians who are making a killing,
And of nature that’s perishing for it.
Ah, it’s the same old, same old story,
It’s been repeated for decades, centuries
And hundreds of books and films are about it.
But still it starts all over again,
People learn nothing from history.
And the story always ends the same.
* * *
Grey
Grey is the most boring colour,
A shade for people with empty hearts,
Hollow heads and for those without ideas, taking
Pride and prejudice would choose white or black,
Those with an open mind appreciate the rainbow,
But grey is the most boring colour,
The colour of the undead walking,
Preferred to those who haven’t a soul
Anymore, never more,
For those missing principles or ideals,
For they have no substance at all:
The Grey Men, who take your lifetime
To be in greyness, shading
Vampires, ghouls.
Grey is the most boring colour.
* * *
