Neat name for the machine
On which the lists were done:
Quietly ordered violence.
Feathers by the ton.
Great name for the device
On which the lists were made:
Pan-European silence,
A pop-gun fusillade,
A muted rat-tat-tat,
The excuse already ripe:
We knew nothing of all that.
All we did was type,
And corrections in those days
Had to be done with x’s.
You couldn’t just erase
And start again: wrong sexes,
Wrong spellings… it took ages.
Just to get it right
Meant black spots in the pages:
Blurs of a foggy night.
Unspoken and unsung,
Those names that didn’t matter.
Sonderbehandlung.
Just written, pitter-patter.
Continental Silentia
For all those in absentia
Respectable dementia
Sub rosa eloquentia
List, oh list
The rest is silence
Put to silence
Zum schweigen gebracht
Typewriter
Firelighter
Tap tap
– Standpoint, September 2010
