Poem by Ivan Malinowski (1926-89) - a Danish poet

Disjecta membra

The gaze seeks a globe of peace but no

unity is final no boundary unwavering

even in eternity the lovers are cleft to the root

only fire goes never unsated to bed

the fruit’s two halves exclude each other

and happily die on their own

while the sunset suddenly lets slip the mask

and you look into a cellar of blood and panic

where everything only consists of its extremities

and nothing accordingly lasts

where a sun of nettles and burning dust

is the price of the metals’ mating and nothing’s

for sure not even the pain or the longing

with wandering waters under roofs of straw

there is no solution or balance

there is no dwelling on earth

but this divided blood refuses to die

and the flesh that clings to its bone can’t be cowed