FRANZ KAFKA'S WAIT

Forgive my intimacy, Franz
but it's your anniversary
even at your age
has again murdered
your birthday cake
with a hundred candles
East and West the Castle
has become a concentration camp

A beetle crawls towards me
in the dimness of a mind's eye
as it sleeps and moves
along the gray slate walls
the swing of metamorphosis
gathers in time,fate, space

You like an ancient prophet
expected a steel insect
called this creature into being
a human inspector
from this Oswiecim-Auschwitz
waits for you, Franz
in our memory's long corridor
where your two sisters perish.