easter sunday, travesties - José F. A. Oliver

[april four-liner]

in the hermitage jacket chocolate

from the Cross drips marzipan

& snowblend.

Outside the window

nests Ostara

on early cherry blossoms

their freshwhite oldclotted

the leaves are young. They gamble phrases / blo-

-omy green / a

handmade sunny fourth of [aprilspun

/ aprilsummery

shine] forces

blossoms to blossom out / rivals the

zest

of may altars. Here someone screams

himself into a cheeryhomeland / : cheery. The clouds are

cabin doors. There

corpses sail into the blue / all

coming from the sea & are

all black. The life

gamblers

at the bunny table

haggle zealously over the buds' woe

: 1 player bets on africa, still wanting to

score. [Too late]. The precious

timber is bargained / the numbers

of casualties contingents

exil

is used paper. The word-

like easter eggs

re-dyed the language / toadwords, leap

ing onto life. Leaping

down from life.

& being

rotten for ages. Somebody

reshuffles “human & dignity”. Like cards

: [ 1 subjunctive by chance]. The water

spits displeasure / languidness

& even Heaven

: fallow land. Children

hunt for easter eggs. The world

is no hideout / from the bunny table

later falls a stone. From the stone

stares an angel's eye

with a s:word. The grave / the graves

remain in the off. The day, 1 throw

hydrangea balls burning up

naked. They are also

kept in the picture / surreal

“how lovely to swim in the mediterranean”

---

José F. A. Oliver (born 1961) Germany

Translated by Marc James Müller

Source: José Oliver website