Baden-Baden

The dizzying seasons in

Turn and return

Float wispy cotton angels

To grave and womb.

The stuffy, delirious,

Glittering German summer

Is brief as a naked dip

In a mountain pond and yet

It is god’s plenty

Because it always comes again.

Green, the heavy green

Of the quarter-infinite

German summer, lies on

The spectrum of human death.

There are no colors

For human life – life

Of the seasons claims them all

And human cycles are illusory.

Green, white, red and blue angels

Come to celebrate each first day again.

Take your time

Impermanence is fleeting

Summer will return again and again

The green hills, red hills, white hills

And blue hills will always be

There to be climbed and

There are litres upon litres

Of Weißbier to be drunk

Though not by you.