“Ich habe noch einen Koffer in Berlin” an old popular song in Germany

A Suitcase in Berlin

I still have this suitcase in Berlin,

It’s stuffed with receipts for comradeship,

Paid for anonymously by hours lived in fear:

Of  betrayal, of interrogation, of the camp,

Of footsteps on the stairs at dawn. I listen

For movement behind the wall of this day.

The hours pass slowly-the afternoon

Is like a silver cat licking its paws, still

Unforeseen calamities of the past linger

As molecules of silence in the stairwells

Of Kreuzberg .They re-appear in inconvenient

Mirrors as bruises on the faces of free-thinkers

Released from the prison of another’s dream.

In Berlin the trains run smoothly underground.

Everyone pays their fare. They avoid stepping

On another’s toes.” We’re doing alright,”

They say when you ask them. “ Money’s tight,

Naturally, but it could be worse of course.”

Of course. Naturally.  Certainly.

(Kreuzberg is an old working class area of Berlin)