Heinz Reiff

Tattered Cloth

Arrived on earth: the primal cry
blue in the face and with bare legs
wrapped in tattered cloth
listed in some book.
There – now you may exist!

Drumms roll on, shouts of hurray
lowing face, mud on the legs
before you: a tattered cloth
after you: a savage curse
So – that’s the way it was!

In the end then: a final cry
blue in the face and legs cut off
wrapped in a tattered cloth,
shovelled under, crossed off the book.
So – that was that, then! 

Aus: Between heart wood and bark, 1987