I know what I have felt
again and again
and never has it been
something abstract
but clearly drawn
on my skin, an
actual etching
that attacks and
cleanly removes
a painful carving
a scrap removed
and wholly gone
filings in
a specific spot
a minimal reduction…
Anyway, I cannot
change myself
yet I feel that
whenever I go
it is somehow
a bit like dying.

Translated by Boris Peters