中国大好き

“WELT BLEIB WACH”

Welt, bleib wach
sagt meine Werbung für Thalia.at
Ich mag Buchhandlungen
Maybe they have Mary and the Witch’s Flower
or we’ll get it in China
Thalia is big enough
the main one at Wien Mitte
to have stuff in English and DVDs
and other languages maybe
I dream of a bookstore
with Turkish Arabic Czech and Hungarian
Slovac Italian Hebrew Slovenian
and many other books
in Vienna
a chain store
maybe Thalia even
that would be something
to stem the tide
of people glued to their smartphones
or screens with ebooks
from Thalia.at
maybe just a little

MW September 2018

I HATE UTUBE TUTORIALS

i hate my tube tutorials
i hate your tube tutorials
i hate his tube tutorials
i hate her tube tutorials
i hate its tube tutorials
i hate our tube tutorials
i hate your tube tutorials
i hate their tube tutorials

maybe we should have our tubes tied
just kiddin’

is there a tutorial for poetry?

MW September 2018

SOMEONE SAYS THERE ARE MORE EMOTIONS THAN THERE ARE EMOJIS

In a quick ad they say that very quickly
in German they are so excited
there is an extra r
Es gibtr mehr Gefühle als Emojis
Who cares
people ain’t gonna read any more books
if you tell them books are cooler than movies
or things on a screen
which could be books
or poetry

Anyway
sell your books
more power to you
Your campaign in German is rather retro
Welt, bleib wach
sounds like something from 1932
Afterwards
everyone knows
world didn’t stay awake, not enough
Racism
Fascism
Stalinism
Maoism
Neoliberalism
ILLIBERAL DEMOCRATIC
STRONGMANISM
Just how long would you have to stay awake
with a nice book
from the chain store
with this nice ad
to prevent
anything

I have a poem about emojis
no, it’s not written in emojis
it’s in Chinese
I translated it into German
its a very nice poem

They have it up in the streetcars
and buses in Stuttgart
Maybe two more months
I still don’t have a photograph
They sent me two posters
they also sent two posters to China
and a very nice letter

Poetry doesn’t prevent anything
Mao wrote poetry
Stalin wrote poetry
Don’t know if Mussolini
wrote poetry
or Tojo or Franco
or that fucking German Austrian fart

Emojis are nice
Emojis are not competing with books

The poem is by Jiang Xinhe
she was 14
when she wrote it in 2017
The poem is called USELESS CHINESE
that’s a short version

MY CHINESE IN SCHOOL IS USELESS SOMETIMES

On a train through the desert
I add
an Uighur boy on my WeChat
When I’m back in Shenzhen we say hello
but I don’t understand Uighur
and he doesn’t understand Chinese writing
Talking doesn’t work out either
so we can only send emojis
We have used every emoji available
all the way down
now
we are starting again
from the top

7/8/2017

So what’s your emotion
after reading this poem?

Do you know
what’s going on about Uighurs
in China?
Right now, in 2018?

The camps
must have been there
in 2017, last year,
some of them.

Hundreds of thousands, some say one million
mostly men and boys
caught up in camps
for re-education.

Women, too.

So where is that boy now?

I am afraid
to ask the poet.

MW September 2018

SCHADE

schade um kern
schade um die spö
schade um österreich
schade um wien
aber hauptsache
die u6
wird steril

MW September 2018

HEIMATLAND

schwiegersohn und sicher kein nazi
aber ein rechter mann für die wirtschaft
koaliert mit
abgehalftertem ex-neonazi
und konsorten
und die machen zusammen
die entsprechende politik.
oder soll ich’s vielleicht
netter sagen?
naja, es gibt noch den präsidenten
und lokal gibt’s auch noch ganz viel
und lokale gibt’s auch noch ganz viele.

MW September 2018

HEIMATLAND II

das kinderfreibad in wien ist sehr schön
ich mein das im dritten bezirk
über den gürtel
also vielleicht schon im zehnten
nicht weit vom elften
im schweizergarten
nicht weit von der welt
nämlich von der autobahn
vom hauptbahnhof sowieso

alte bäume
ein schönes gelände
heuer haben sie modernisiert
neue klos
alles größer
dort hinten war früher ein basketballring

jetzt im september sind keine leute
endlich hat es richtig geregnet
aber die sonne ist noch genug

MW September 2018

HEIMATLAND III: MARILLENKNÖDEL

marillenknödel
marillenknödel
noch einen
marillenknödel
noch einen
marillenknödel
noch einen
marillenknödel
noch einen
marillenknödel
noch einen
marillenknödel
sind es schon acht
noch einen
ich weiß ich hab
mindestens acht vertragen

MW September 2018