A hooker / gives me the come on. Whether I really // don’t want anything. I don’t, even if / I think about it afterwards.

the ceaseless forgetting and reminiscing about pleasure / maybe two swans on the Seine / maybe one

I had never seen / such a narrow room / when we wanted to turn around / we had to embrace

Post-war literature is pre-war literature. / In front of doors is behind doors. / In my eyes I’m in your eyes, but how do you see it?

Sit down at the table / and clear your mind / Take a pen / and write your beloved’s first name / across a whole sheet of blank paper

Under the arbor by the stream, / Amid the scent of pine sap and stale beer, / I just wanted to sit a while / Forever

Afraid / to lift / and clear away / a cockerel’s / corpse. / You well know / by the time / you’ve called for help / the others’ve pecked / away the head.

Parting, practicing parting, gradually mastering the technique, / like taking off your last clothes and purposely remaining helpless and naked

He was close to tears as if he had known the penalty / the day before the day he angered the gods