NURSING
Without the crown and without
the veil and without the black
damask gown.
Without the chemise.
The brimming breast.
The nipples
between the lips.
__________
VOID
In the void a word
like a white
tomb in the sand
like a bird on a
stone without legend.
Translated from the German by Stuart Friebert with permission of Carl Hanser Verlag/Munich
—from Rattle #37, Summer 2012
__________
Kuno Raeber (1922–1992), the Swiss writer of poetry, prose, fiction, and criticism, much acclaimed in Europe, is virtually unknown in English. He replaced Stuart Friebert at Oberlin in the ’60s, when Friebert was on sabbatical.
