A liquid pane touched on all sides,

Between
by Rosmarie Waldrop

I´m not quite at home
on either side of the Atlantic
I´m not irritated the fish
kept me
a home makes you forget
unaware
where you are
unless you think you´d like
to be some place
I can´t think I´d like to be
some other place
places are much the same
aware
I´m nowhere
I stand securely in a liquid pane
touched on all sides
to change your country
doesn´t make you
grow (a German doll
into an image of America?)
it doesn´t make you change so much
you can´t remember
I remember
things are much the same
so much the same
differences are barbed
I try out living at a distance
watching from a window
immobile
not all here
or there
a creature with gills and lungs
I live in shallow water
but when it rains
I inherit the land

Source: WALDROP, Rosmarie. The aggressive ways of the casual stranger. Random House, 1972.

Rudolf Bonvie – “Dialog”. 1977.