"EVEN JÖRMUNDGAND SHRUGS"

I - Discovery

above the tides of turbulency
sing the ninth daughter of Ægir
a warcry of the mermaids
stationed across the lagoon

dead trees and stumps
tangled in the roots
of a foreign windblown silt
i can see !  

stunted poplar woodlands
bathe in sullen shades
of arctic autumn colors
i can see !

dark knolls of wetlands
tear-eyed in the distance
for the seals to return
once again
i can see !

and i can see
young men laid to wet graves
blessed in the spirit of the explorer

even Jörmundgand shrugs
in these watery badlands !

abandoned by the sun,
only wind and rock remains :

the longhouses struggle into spring
the pastures struggle into summer

cat, dog, cow, sheep, child,
maiden and man :
we starve together - Norse as one !

the frontiers of the German folk
is pushed once again

from the mosaics of Miklagård
to the Blåland dunes
and from the homeland
to the windswept foaming massgraves of Thule

further into the squally cold
further into the expanse
further into an ever-hinterland

the tide explodes in every direction
across the blustery oceans of the north

II - Conquest

suddenly ! a shadow or a silhouette :
something eerie disappears
above the curvature of the coast-cliff

suddenly ! an axe in bronze

a scream is uttered !

and the blood is spurting
in cascades down

the skull split into two
the face split into

two tongues, two noses,
four lips, one axe

the dead skraeling
yells no more
upon the rock of sacrifice

a brutal confrontation
between a Norse axe-thrower
and a native American scout
ends in violent death

totems of the new world flock
are struck by German iron
for the first time of many
in the history of man and war

plumes of smoke billow
across the burning village

conquest has its course
on the rugged plains of Vinland