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Jacket 16 — March 2002   |   # 16  Contents   |   Homepage   |  Catalog   |    


Overland magazine feature

Michele Leggott: milk and honey taken far far away (ii)



Paris before the bombs in the shoes
the long grass under the trees at Wannsee
the river with the beautiful name
echoed in fountain spray
where we stroll intime Unter Den Linden
and break the bank on each other
mink and metal in one window harlequin
pants in the other     your eyes
in lapis and gold from Mosaicksatelier
curling treble clef for a morning hat
black peacock halo for quiver breath
did you dream Zauberflõte in puppets
woodwinds like cedar and lemon drops
the wealth of stars tilting your ecliptic
the orange moon on fire at the corner
the bullet-holes in the courtyards
the untranslatable word on the stone
incomprehensible numbers     knowledge
glittering in your eyes like broken crystal



city of delights now I walk barefoot
on the glazed bricks of Babylon
through white daisies on high walls
among rippling yellow lions
in tanks of blue protective grace
to the catastrophe of Light beyond
the Ishtar Gate   I am a girl in Oranienburg
making a hologram   I am a girl in Coromandel
throwing cats’-eyes into the sea at new moon
I am walking for the pleasure of sand
of clover, of stone stairs, of asphalt, of dust
I am walking north to the festival house
of the new year   I am walking east
into the abyss  
when the light splinters under my feet
it will be as rainwater washing them clean  
when the storm breaks over the city
the warlords will draw up their timetables
when the bow is strung I will lift it
and fire on the waters rising against me



every night / almond profiteroles
by the turned-down duvets   champagne
and oysters under the sea   white roses
done up in ribbons by the river   the script
we blue-pencilled in the tearoom of the Pergamon
as the rain began and our ways lay apart    
milch und honig made into nothing
transported white white and faraway
Säugling bis Greis do you understand
these words on the stone where I kneel
to read with the tips of my fingers weggebracht
a way taken taken away   how does Love live here
except as Schattentheater two shadows
on a rooftop taking a table into the garden
because it’s midsummer and the evening star
invites an audience   now the blue angel
flies across town to catch a cloudy smile
at Kino Arsenal   upstairs in the museum
of gowns and feathers two take another table
into the roofgarden   their orchestra follows


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