“Before the Deluge” by Dan Grossman

Before the Deluge

Tonight I’ll be Martin and you’ll be Hannah
and together we’ll close the door on the Weimar,
We’ll break out of the world of the “They”
and abandon ourselves to desire. 

I’ll duck-step my way to your bed and throw
off my brownshirt. My heart will skip six
beats to your refrain of “Ich liebe dich.”  
Is there enough liebes between us

between my German and your Yiddish?
Will the time horizon open itself to us?
These questions I click & send your way
while you, in your parents’ house lay

down to bed. Your absence inspires me 
to complete Being and Time in the silence
of night. Will you, at sunrise, say 
hallo or verabschiedung to my dreams

in which more than tongues
pass between us?  Don’t just message me
your answer over morning coffee.
Open your Dasein in response.

Yes. My devotion to you is totalitarian.
I want to strip your defenses down 
to your rootless being. Will you follow 
me, my love, into the vaterland? 

From Dan Grossman’s collection Mindfucking Roundabouts of Carmel, Indiana