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