Weltende Variation #I
By Bill Knott
(homage Jacob van Hoddis)
The CIA and the KGB exchange Christmas cards
A blade snaps in two during an autopsy
The bouquet Bluebeard gave his first date reblooms
Many protest the public stoning of a guitar pick
Railroad trains drop off the bourgeois’ pointy head
A martyr sticks a coffeecup out under a firehose
Moviestars make hyenas lick their spaceship
God’s hand descends into a glove held steady by the police
At their reunion The New Faces recognize each other
A spoiled child sleeps inside a thermometer
A single misprint in a survival manual kills everyone
The peace night makes according to the world comes
Notes:
van Hoddis: author of “the first Expressionist poem,” Weltende, published in 1910. His poem has been aped innumerable times, hence the questionmark in my title.
Copyright Credit: Bill Knott, "Weltende Variation # 1," from Outremer, published by University of Iowa Press. Copyright 1989 by Bill Knott. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Source: Outremer (1989)