Issue 14: Natalie Häusler
CORALS (excerpt)
And it is one to say
it is a coral it is
one to say it is red
is to say it is of anger
is to say it is enraged
is to say it is not dead
is to say it is active
is to say it is yet to come
is to say it smiles
is to say it was never easy
is to say what are you up to in your imagination
is to say you are a plant of selfishness
is to say you taste
is to say I like your style
is to say you knew it before
is to say why don't you
is to say come on
is to say break that glass
is to say I'm leaving
is to say you'll get to swim in deep waters
is to say why don't you?
Often the water is warmer in some
parts than in others and that has to
do with the distance of the surface
to the ground.
It it it
it it it
it it it
it
wants to be
warm
wants to be
felt
wants to be
plastic
wants to be
recycled
wants to be
rejected
wants to be
in the office
wants to be
downtown
wants to be
flat
wants to be
graveyard
wants to be
usb
wants to be
rye
It muss an die Macht denken.
Es ist soweit dass alles schwimmt
wenn man es löffelt.
Let's skip it
let's skip it then!
Ohjee. Ohjee.
Pan is tempted,
Pan is tempted to go for a walk
in his garden of jewels, of bells
und unverschämtem Gras
das kitzelt. Er mag es sehr, die Sonne
auch und wenn der Weizen schmilzt
und Ähren sich wiegen
im Wind des Wassers.
Er schreckt zurück
um zu beteuern, er steigt
bergauf zugleich im Fluss des Wassers Fuß
es klingt ihm in den Ohren
der Zeh geradewegs hinein
den Finger in die Luft.
Es geht nach links
und weiter in den Wald
die Böschung schreit
du solltest singen
wenn du's fühlst und gerne
auch danach wenn's dir
gelingt zu wagen. Es betäubt
dich eine schöne Scheu
du eleganter Bock
ich mag dein Fell
es glänzt so schön im Regen
und deiner Arme Anmut
ein Reigen, Reisig im zerzausten Haar
und Wasser in der Brust. The subject
has a thirst for sweat
or hair on skin and leg so loose
and magma in his neck a glow
of serpents strangling
the ecstatic breath. He wants to
lick the serpents tooth of
whitest white an ivory
to pierce or slice a tongue
of virtue and of speech
a tongue in longing for
the serpent's touch, electric contact
with a poison stored in honor
of the touch of tongues.
Pan and snake.
Four tips, two tongues, one flesh,
and then?
Du bist doch so unverschämt und frei.
Du bist doch
du
so unverschämt
und frei.
It was a sideways touch that hit
it in the head. It came then to the
realization that it was 28,7 x 20,5 cm
in size with a weight of 5,6 kg. Astonishing
was also a brown leaf falling onto a
brown hat or the brownish sky so
velvety a poetic kiss.
Kiss letter by letter, make it a word,
a sentence even, if you can.
I feel you. Don't give me that look,
it said. It said it was ready to leave.
It left.
Where is your temple anyways,
you statue?
You keep loosing your temper all the time.
You owe me a temple,
I hope you remember,
or at least a decent sized piece
of land, to put a castle on.
I touch your temple with my palm.
Is that rude?
I found this in the garbage.
It resembled your head so I thought
I better pick it up before it gets all
dirty and messed up.
Hello?? Hello? AH yes, here is
IT speaking:
It wants to be warm
It wants to be felt
It wants to be plastic
You know how it goes…
But anyways. I wanted to ask
when I can come to get my hair cut.
My head is all dirty and wet.
Someone left it in the garbage, you know.
The sun rises and it is day, it really is.
A flat bat drowns
its wings barely touching the clouds in passing,
water on black fur. It rains on top of that
scene. It is lit by killer light. Killer Light.
Urgent storms all over the place.
Urgent is angry. Urgent calls Jürgen.
"Hi Jürgen. I'm not feeling well.
Yeah, some kind of fever. Wild stuff."
Urgent hangs up, drinks a glass of gin.
Urgent feel less nervous now.
It's some kind of greenish yellow, you know
with a tint of magenta. The kind you think
could be perceived as warm but it's in fact
a cold tone. Do you know which one I mean?
Water falls down the waterfall. Water falls down
the waterfall. Water falls down the waterfall
Water falls down the waterfall. More water
falls down the waterfall.
I smell the gin in his breath. "Are you drunk
Urgent? How does that make you feel? I
cannot imagine. Do you want me to bring you
some materials so you can experiment?
I feel drunk, that's the only thing I feel,
Urgent says. Ah, of course. "No, you don't
understand, I feel always drunk. No matter
what." Ah of course.
No, you don't understand. Ah of course.
No, you don't understand. Ah of course.
No, you don't understand. Ah of course.
No, you don't understand. Ah of course.
Milk runs down that tree, runs up
the monkey jumps towards the rich flavor,
a coconut of flesh and nail polish pours
all over the place. Monkey is tired, sticks
its tongue out, puts the nut in a plastic bag.
Precautious experiment with angles and
the rest is history. I have a foot in the door.
It hurts. It better does, it better does.
I'm telling you. That's how it goes.
A reflection of the tree in the screen
interrupted by face showing signs of thinking,
a cheap effect, it works on you.
A belief system is painted
on latex coated walls.
A belief system is drawn
on the flip chart of the dummies.
Just visuals, surface
remember, surface?
Die inneren Werte der Angst?
Chirurgischer Wahnsinn. Natürlich
bedeutet Oberfläche ALLES. Deshalb
and because of that, fear is creeping
up my lungs when I open my eyes,
dare to take a look, at basically anything
created by us now.
The relationship between image making
and agenda has always been complicated,
coded messages running like subterranean
streams through the history of painting.
Professional by professional
each one with a tender skill,
hugging, nodding, walking.
The weirdness of human interaction.
- Ein weiteres Weltbild
- Ein neuer Blick
- Ruhige Konzentration
- Liebe und Offenheit
- Fröhlichkeit und Großzügigkeit,
in Gedanken und Taten
- Aufmerksamkeit
The skill is going for a hunt with
the hunter, skinny dipping its furry
tail besides a tempting seaside bench.
Ooops, now you are wet. How to
hit the target? Locate the target first, no?
And then hit, or bite it into the center,
eh, heart, right? Oder poison, poison the
shit out if it, skill it all up, wrap it up and
skill it. Skillet tan it. Seeya later alligator,
and bring it, bring it on.
Es begab sich einmal einer
auf den Weg um nach diesem
zu suchen und es war gelb.
Dann hat er es gefunden
und war fortan glücklich
und zufrieden.
And then and then and then?
Das geht so nicht!
Halt die Klappe!
Seaside bench a flower growing in the wood,
a fossil stain and porous green lacquer
smells like sandalwood, air everywhere air.
Sie sind hierhin gekommen
weil du sie angerufen hast
und jetzt sind sie da
und warten
bis der Winter kommt oder der Sommer
oder der Frühling oder der Herbst
oder was weiss ich. Auf jeden Fall
warten sie lange, solange sie wollen.
Und dann gehen sie woanders hin.
The change of weather was quite sudden.
After desert gowns had been replaced by
woolen suits the wind set in, a never-ending
respiratory flow. We too changed our pace
of breathing, just for the sake of it, blending in,
to camouflage with any type of cruelty we would
encounter, for … sake.
Now it was now, and that could last, very silent
and calm, mimicking rage, grief, pain, exhaustion
as long as … .
Siblings pass a mirror of sorts, relate to it, themselves,
their thing of being me me you you I I. While witnessing
this in form of voice an unprecedented transmission of
genetic material takes place. Holding their hands, touching
their lips with our finger tips we want the debate now. Wanting
to be sibling, to break ties, to learn to speak yours ours my
their language in order to shape shift elegantly if necessary.
Clenching the fingers, holding the blanket, waiting
to uncover parts of the moon, the one that says: "Hey."
Nowhere is very strong at the moment with a special
skill of choking diligently. "So cool!" Just more clouds
than anyone could ever eat. And I hear them talking
more and more, not so fast really but just a lot. Matter
is forgiving, is that a sentence?
And then it was then so how to ever end a sentence,
the paragraph of mourning and quiet disbelief? The
ground encounters lots of it, all the time,
reacts with indifference, equilibrating without judgement,
providing the site for murder, providing the site for lying
in the grass, providing the site for running around being
stressed out, providing the site for a fight, providing the
site for I need to eat something, providing the site for plants
to grow in, trash to be thrown at, providing.
You were there suddenly and so hungry. I've never felt
such innocent hunger, how could I think it was my own?
Soft sweet tones, sleepy softness, sinking in there
and then snowflakes again, those types flying upwards
on their way down.
A new sun, just like this.
The corals all white now,
their red, wasted somewhere else,
plankton all over the dead creatures,
unable to process the unintentional matter.
Ausser Atem, das Skelett jedoch bleibt intakt.
Die Korallenbleiche setzt ein und das bedeutet:
CORAL VS. PLANKTON
Die Unbeweglichen begegnen den Umherirrenden.
They meet, they recognize each other but are now
completely unable to make use of each other.
The water is boiling hot.
No.
The water seems boiling hot.
The organism separates.
Both parts die within eight weeks
if they don't manage to establish a
new connection.
Liquid drips down the cold stone,
underwater sweat mixes with deep sea water.
A stressed coral skeleton is in the process of
rejecting its plant companion.
Witness coral stress caused by an
uncomfortable algae.
Witness hot algae, taste algae sweat.
Water can't wash away this type of sweat,
it lingers like an invisible deep sea oil spill,
sucks life out of the coral skeleton
quickly in the process of forgetting
how to survive on its own.
Natalie Häusler is an artist and poet living in Berlin. Her book A Virus Can be on a Mussel or in Some Liquid on This Salad Leaf or That Tomato or in This Person’s Mouth or Not came out with Mousse Publishing, Milan. Another part of Corals can be read in VierSomes Publication 004, Veer Books, Birkbeck College’s Contemporary Poetics Research Centre (CPRC), London. She is a co-editor of American Books.
