A hard time at the ticket office

I just want to go home
without money, raise a credit
go home
buy a ticket
from the gatekeeper
go by bus to the subway 
the motorway
she requires a foto to issue a ticket but 
I have only school fotos 
where I look too young
and bad
no:
I'll go direct to the main train station
by bus, dodge the fare but
she asks me for a map of my destination
because she doesn't believe that 
I know where I'm going
leafing
through an atlas full of 
Germany, I say: 
direct to the main train station

she asks where I live
she knows about my home
hilariously

2010-10-10

False

Two equalled one 
when I saw her again,
one equalled nil
when she made me wait
which made me hate
that one.

2011-01-17

A friend offers his help

When I spoke of my messy inheritance
my friend offered his help
which I gladly accepted.
And I did the planning, booking two rooms and
- most of all -
didn't ask anyone else, 
until, 
in the nick of time,
he told me, by the way,
that I couldn't demand 
that much work for no payment,
that I should have known that and,
after all,
I was inheriting, wasn't I?
And when I then most unpleasantly felt
forced to remind him 
of the lengthy favours I'd previously done him,
I found
that he'd hardly noticed 
any of those.

2008-12-06

Harte Arbeit

Ich hab' so schwer geschuftet
um ihm seinen Wunsch zu erfüllen, 
wie ich dachte.
Ganz schwach von der Anstrengung
finde ich seine Anerkennung nicht. 

Die Ignoranz der Leute hier
macht's auch nicht leichter:
Mein Vater kommt gerad' aus dem Urlaub
und hat natürlich auch nichts gemerkt, 
immerhin hat er gute Laune.

Der Alte dahinten dagegen 
spielt den Abwesenden. 
Sein Wunsch
ist mir immer noch Befehl.

2008-08-02

A tornado of words
towering list of my offences 
approaches the house
dissipating but not finished 
until it strikes me over the head
on its last breath

2013-06-11