Between two worlds and three tongues
the wandering body seeks a capable mind
who, without guilt and pain and root
may leave all behind
My body longs for refuge no longer,
not from the fallen leaves of a tree
who can no longer grow,
not the remaining time with which
we played as children an eternity ago,
not all-the-cards-on-the-table
around which our lives revolved.
The smallest bits of everyday
belong to us no longer
but to the In-between World
driving towards nowhere.
You and I, we return
to every day and every night.
No painted sheet from old torn letters
have we received.
No call from those whose footsteps
have sunk into ash.
Nostalgia offers us no sustenance,
but like familiar spices
it weighs down our breath.
Those who have joined the In-between World
have no other choice but to become
sleepwalkers, wide awake.
Dark and light murmur steadily
in our ears and ordinary footsteps
come nearer.
The prevailing silence and sounds
hang on our hungry hands
for fireflies in the daytime.
We are born again within the endless eclipses
and never-setting suns.
It is hardly possible to discern
where the direction flies.
Aulic Anamika was born in a South Asian delta and grew up there. About ten years ago she flew in to Berlin. “Die Zwischenwelt” is her first poem in German, based on her wanderings in three languages: Bengali, English and German. Besides poetry, she writes stories, songs and creative non-fiction.
