e.a.richter

the teachers leave
the school the prettiest teacher too
escapes the pupils'
twiddling thumbs the gong
is taken along the sponge
drips into the afternoon it is raining
chalk & rhetoric from the notebooks

the facade lovers
come out from their hiding places
behind the sand & the heaps
they have their plans
planly on their breast
between the cheeks of their naked asses
the past century florishes

here there was a meadow now
only the oats felt by the pupils
grow and verdigris
on the faces the janitors
are all one-eyed cleaning ladies
smell like vinegar in the cellar
a mound of discarded sandwiches
is kept for hard times in the attic
beat up furniture
as perverse proof
for irreducible repression

the teachers observe
the behavior of passers-by
on the streets clothing and hair style
the associations sit cramped
between the ears sports
as a remedy for sexuality
swollen tongues
between the teeth a multitude
of squandered sounds squandered
hours swollen fingers
between their thighs the teachers
observe their responsibility

(1971)

(translated by Graydon Ekdahl, published in DIMENSION, Contemporary Arts and Letters, Vol. VIII, No. 1 & 2, 1975)

(Deutsch hier)