Zu dritt

Raised on love

From the very first

Before there was a name

For "father"

Or the baby

Or their relationship

That would encircle the world

And too soon reach beyond

Its fragile sphere.

 

Yet that first experience continued

Shaping all that followed

The lesson learned by example

To open oneself

To another, lowering one's defenses

Exposing one's vulnerability

To begin a new relationship

After months becoming years

Of solitary confinement.

 

Once more to smell and see

A familiar constant presence

To touch and be touched

Delighted and delighting

Feeling again the closeness

Of bear muzzle on beard

Now bear muzzle on bear muzzle

Bear on beard as they turn

Three together.

 

   —K. {2–3 December 2009; Der Hinterbliebene}

 Der Zusammenhang

Who can commemorate the birthday
Without remembering the day of birth
The night
The uncertainty
Who can think of one
Without the other
Since those first four months
Together
Every day, every night
Around the clock
Forming this relationship

That physical barriers could not interrupt
      Not the latex gloves
      The glass walls of the incubator
      The bars of the cage
Nor the lengthening time spent on opposite sides
      Of the water ditch
      The Plexiglas screen
      The fence
Nor the official decrees
      The sudden end to displayed affection
      The prohibitions
      The reprimands

Not even death
In the second year
All at once on opposite sides
Of eternity
Yet always
One
With the other.

   —K. {1–4 December 2008; Der Hinterbliebene}

 Die Stangengeburt

The first birth
Was tentative and doubtful
Animal instinct dulled
By years of human aberration.

Five hours later

A human intervened
Atoning for the inhumanity of his species
Rescuing two helpless creatures
From death
So closely shadowing birth.

The second birth
Was the beginning of a new life
Born of love,
A relationship not of blood
But of trust:
One entrusted with another's rejected offspring,
Becoming both father and mother
Nurturer and protector
To one trusting creature

Recreating the world
For one creature.

   —K. {18–19 September 2007; Das Verhältnis}