With the Versailles Treaty of 1919
the Danish-German border is
the only one
that is saved
 
Some countries
like Poland, e.g.
change their size
and form and placement
under cover of night
 
It is POles with headscarves
it is POles with baskets on their backs
it is them in worn-out tractors who
move around on the land in the dark
after the second world war
 
It is sinister, yes indeed,
cakes of mud hanging
from rags of clothing and everything
screwed crookedly together everything
looks like used organs
from above
 
It is the battered hoes
the turnips, the black teeth
cabbage, it is the moon
that is also brown
as neckties
 
###
 
Martin Glaz Serup‘s “Poem” was originally published in the Spring 2004 issue of TLR.