I.
A farmer was walking by a stream when he saw a basket
had been left there. There was a baby, miraculously,
asleep inside. Glücklich für das Kind, the soft, fine day;
the slow wind didn’t wake her.
II.
They called her Christl, because she came like Christ in
a mean way, out of doors, and was conceived like him,
mysteriously.
III.
The farmer had neighbours who, it was well-known,
could not have children, and this was a great burden.
The farmer’s wife felt that God had laid a gift in her
hands, and she was grateful for what she alone had the
power to give away.
IV.
She was adopted by these neighbours. Then when she
was eight, Christl’s first sister was born. Heidi, with hair
all over her little skull. Then came Irmgard, Günther,
the twins Roswitha and Anne-Marie, and Harry.
V.
At 21 she worked in a canteen in green army uniform,
serving meals to British soldiers after the war. First
Frank hooked her waist and touched the bright yellow
curl that emerged from her cap to rest on her cheek. One
night, he stuck his dick in her. The other man came, and
he wanted to take her to England and marry her, and
Christl had nowhere else to bring the child, and she
would not leave it by the river, so she crossed the sea.