er findet immer einen Weg
…for Walter Bargen, after reading Endearing Ruins
Seven layers of sponge cake (eight
for those whose memory, like
art, is longer than life), each baked
alone, then stacked and mortared
with buttercream (a touch of apricot
if you please) all shrouded in enough
dark chocolate to make the kind of tower
you would make if you did not think it
robbery to include one god or the other
in your circle of friends. Slice and serve
with strong coffee and, nervous as
that may make some gods, they
will not need to lift a finger. Divine
aphasia will settle on tongues naturally,
a whole greater than the sum of all
the stories we carry speaking in them
when we find ourselves living lost. Once
we live, we live everywhere. And
though we may wonder how
tight to hold a handful of air, the
important thing is how the air holds us.
And how it does hold us. That we
can’t call back this or any other
universe cannot be denied, but
don’t even try to tell me there’s
a hell of a good one next door —
even when it is so cold we carry nothing
home to burn for fluttering warmth, even
when the difference between fighting and
executing is hard to hear. Wonder the way,
wander the difference careful as one
who crosses a bridge in winter,
courteous as one who is a guest
giving way like ice melting. Nothing
happens when you have nothing
under control. Face it. Ice gives way,
and everybody knows you have never
been nothing, not even before
your parents were born.
reviewed by Steven Schroeder, Chicago
Walter Bargen. Endearing Ruins/Liebenswerte Ruinen. German translations by Josef Wittmann. Liliom Verlag, 2012. ISBN 978-3-934785-58-8.