{"id":57,"date":"2009-07-23T21:49:33","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T02:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/?p=57"},"modified":"2009-07-23T21:49:33","modified_gmt":"2009-07-24T02:49:33","slug":"claudia-bierschenk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2009\/07\/claudia-bierschenk\/","title":{"rendered":"Claudia Bierschenk"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Hohensch\u00f6nhausen<\/h3>\n

(former East Berlin remand prison)<\/h3>\n

Claudia Bierschenk<\/a><\/em>, July 2009<\/a><\/h5>\n

Where I am
\nfor how long
\nI dont know
\nthey wont say
\ncould be anywhere
\nnorth, south
\nsurely not West
\nthe van black inside
\nhands and feet shackled
\nmany hours
\non a bumpy ride
\nneon lights catch me
\nby surprise
\nGet out!
\nEyes down!
\nMove!
\nboots, uniforms
\nthey all sounds alike
\nbare feet on leaf-patterned lino
\nI tipple like a child
\non the way to
\nthe headmasters office
\nthe strip-search
\neach orifice checked
\ngrey door shuts behind me
\nlike a storys end
\nmy name stays outside
\nI am ordered
\nto sit on a stool
\nat the centre of this cube
\nhands on knees
\nface down
\nthey know how to get you
\nwith an excuse of a window
\nglass bricks
\nde-construct sunlight
\nI can only tell day from night
\nand flush the toilet
\nwhen they say its alright
\nnights dont bring solace in sleep
\nthe bulb they shine in my face
\neach time I turn
\nreminds me Im here
\nthe interrogator is my new best friend
\nin his room a real window
\nwhere the same sky
\npauses each day
\nafter a while
\nthey come for me at night
\nthere must be others
\nat times a faint knocking
\nor is it the pipes
\ntheir torture is boredom
\nand deprivation
\nI want my parents
\nmy sister
\nfresh air
\nsleep, laugh, cry, have a bath
\nI dont know
\nwhere I am
\nfor how long
\nor how long
\nIve been here
\nno chance of suicide
\ntheyre so well prepared
\nI cant do nothing but
\nwait, wait, wait.<\/p>\n

My mother’s file<\/h3>\n

Claudia Bierschenk<\/a><\/em>, July 2009<\/a><\/h5>\n

‘It’s disappeared’
\nthey said<\/p>\n

most likely in shreds
\ncrammed in with a million
\nothers’ lives<\/p>\n

in seventeen thousand
\nblue bin bags<\/p>\n

Kaddish for Ms. Weinberg<\/h3>\n

Claudia Bierschenk<\/a><\/em>, July 2009<\/a><\/h5>\n

a spinster, lady of style
\nwell-read, and appalled
\nwhen they came into
\nher bedroom without knocking<\/p>\n

in 1942 she was in her fifties
\nwith no relations;
\nshe had never been East
\nnor on a train for that long<\/p>\n

a plaque on the pavement
\noutside my unsafe house
\nblackened by time
\nand countless innocent passers-by<\/p>\n

while her charred bones are lost,
\ndusted with limestone, outside Riga<\/p>\n

Claudia lives and works in Berlin. She is a part-time project manager and proofreader for a translation company. She teaches Business English one night a week and Spanish to two boisterous kids one afternoon a week. The rest of the time she walks through Berlin, tries to speak more German to her English boyfriend, drinks coffee, reads and writes. She discovered her love for writing in general and poetry in particular whilst living in England (now her second home), where she took a course in Creative Writing at Sheffield University.
\nClaudia spent her childhood and early teenage years in East Germany close to the former Iron Curtain, and a lot of her writing deals with life in East Germany before the re-unification with the West.<\/p>\n

She has had a few pieces published in online poetry magazines, such as Alittlepoetry.com, Juice Magazine, and Public Republic. One of her poems has recently been published in an anthology by Forward Press, UK.<\/p>\n

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In Hohensch\u00f6nhausen (former East Berlin remand prison) Claudia Bierschenk, July 2009 Where I am for how long I dont know they wont say could be anywhere north, south surely not West the van black inside hands and feet shackled many hours on a bumpy ride neon lights catch me by surprise Get out! Eyes down! 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