IMAGINARY CAREER
First a childhood, boundless and without
negation and goal. O unthinking joy.
Suddenly fright, limit, schoolroom, slavery,
and fall into temptation, into loss.
Defiance. The bent becomes the bender now
and seeks revenge on others, makes them succumb.
Loved, feared; savior, enemy, victor,
vanquisher, role by role.
And then alone in vastness, lightness, cold.
Yet deep in that erected figure
a breathing toward the First, the Ancient …
Then God stepped out of his hiding place.
Schöneck, September 15, 1923