Retracing my steps.
Places where I’ve died: a house,
A field, a forest.
Two clever ravens
Circle over the orchard:
Peasants dislike them.
Wind in the rye fields,
Poisoned wells and bloated sheep:
I know who did it.
Blond maidens in starched
Costumes: one step, two steps, three –
Your turn to be dead.
One in a ditch, one
Watching from the highest branch –
We will meet again.
We travel through time.
A bundle of sentience pushed
Into human shapes.
Different where and when.
I’ll come back. New face, new name –
Will you find me then?
Once I was a fish;
You the riverbed at night
Strewn with molten stars.
This time, I have hands.
Touch me. Deliver me from
Being born again.
Lorelei Bacht is a European poet living in Asia with her family, which includes two young children and a lot of chaos. Her current work is primarily concerned with gender, motherhood, marriage, and aging. Sometimes, she manages to convert the elusive beauty of her dark visions into poems. This year, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such publications as OpenDoor Poetry Magazine, Litehouse, Visual Verse, Visitant and Quail Bell. She can be found on instagram: @lorelei.bacht.writer and @the.cheated.wife.writes
photo by Jr Korpa and Šárka Krňávková (via unsplash)
Crow & Cross Keys 