(for Andy Marx)
It’s a lonely day
in Tuebingen.
I’m floating in insecurity
along the Neckar,
riddled with last night’s schnapps.
Not knowing
where the hell
I’m headed,
I need a lady’s touch
just there,
where it matters.
That’s why
I’m homing in on Bismarkstrasse
to that scarlet house
where the Mueller Girls wait
to lick my brains
a little better
than anyone else will
this afternoon,
feeding my appetite
for breath
and lust
for that special feeling.
This minute I wish
to be surrounded
by girls,
for them to make me warm
and hold my dreams
in their strong arms.
Coming to Tuebingen
has become a habit
as natural as drinking;
I know just where to sit
in the Boulanger bar,
just where to drown
and just where to float
and drift.
Drink helps me
to alter my mind,
to raise and lift my spirits.
But it’s not the same
as Monika
lifting her skirt
and raising me up
on her massive bed.
And so
we rock on
in this Swabian storm,
breathless
and shaky
as Hoelderlin’s hands.
I am lying
with my head
in her thighs
and only now
am I feeling alive.
She
is helping me
finish
this poem.
It’s a long one
and needs to be shaped
into action.
She whispers crazy words
into my left ear
because I am left handed
and need her to tell me
just what to write
on these sheets
I caress
with a lyric touch.
She pampers my mind
with fresh ideas,
hot thoughts.
When other folk
are at their work,
this juicy text
drips
from her tongue.
She licks all
my poetry books
and comes to me
down Lange Gasse
in her boots
and stockings
from another century.
I go upstairs,
along the path
to the hottest girls in town,
to a golden shower
running
with river water.
Open my mind
you can find
sweet fantasies in there,
smuggled through Customs,
drenched with alcohol
and knowledge.
What do you say
to a Market Place massage,
a walk
through the park
with a lovely girl
whose hair is wild?
This life is limitless.
We must explore
the dirty lanes
behind Town Halls,
the balls
of light
in the graveyard of poets,
tongues
playing wildly,
this unforgettable hour,
kissing away
life.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
