Our Vision


Gerhard, I had a dream last night
It was our town, but you could hardly tell
As it was all on fire
There were flames, and smoke, and dust
And the postcard I got in my mind’s eye
Was as if crumpled and set alight
 

You were with me, and we were running
Up Kapperweg past Frau Maderthaner’s apartment house
Where had just visited her and that squawking parakeet
We stepped out, and all those memories came crashing down
Along with Frau Maderthaner
Maybe the parakeet flew away
Not that the air was any safer…
Jets of flame propelled down on our town
How can fire come from the sky, Gerhard?
 
Angswar, I had the same dream!
Yes, we were running, and it was our town
But it became an inferno
Where was the fire’s source?
Was it lightning from those dark, menacing clouds?
Or were the clouds hiding some new creation?
But what brings down fire from up in the sky?
You know one of those clouds looked just like a dirigible
We saw in ’09 at the Grand Palais in Paris
It looked so peaceful…surely it was not the cause
And it was heading toward the West
Where dark clouds also loomed
 
Gerhard, those clouds, the ones toward the West,
Were trying to tell us something
By almost forming words or symbols
I cannot tell
 
Angswar, the other people running out from collapsing rubble
They seemed not to be human
But some kind of machines
With levers and gears
Some were illuminated on the square
But no light ever came out of the rathskeller so brightly
It started angling up toward the sky
I do not know why lights would ever search the sky
 
Nor do I, Gerhard
The wreckage reached toward us
As would phantom trees in the Thuringian Forest
Only here there were no trees

Did I mention you had a full beard
Which you are too young for now?
So, this must be the future
But this is 1912, the Age of Science
 
We had a dream last night
And our world was coming down
Not by renewal
But by fire