Die Ausgezeichnete by Wolfgang Mattheuer

So here’s our thanks for forty years of labour:
Five red carnations, and an aluminium medal.
That’s all you get, we’ve put it down on paper;
Your contributions’ valued, and truly remarkable!
You might think this reward a little slim.
Comrade, don’t act like you have been betrayed!
We’re not to blame that you’re history’s victim,
And that time’s turning point for you has come too late!
Using your bent back surely is pure bliss
To pick up remains of the Berlin Wall,
Before the West wind coughs them in your face
That blew out our ideas and made us fall.
Those sunken cheeks? Now, there’s a noble look!
Dark rings framing your eyes from worked - through nights?
A pair of dark shades surely cover up,
You’re too old to partake in world’s delights.
Go, blame your children, who took to the street;
To fight our cause, and your cause, comrade, too!
Mistook their victory (ha!) for our defeat.
We merely changed our coats and our virtue.
We’ll blend in with the crowd and disappear.
The odd black sheep will be burnt at the stake;
But most of us have nothing else to fear.
The odd flake in a snowdrift singled out.
We’ll stash away our Lenin statuette
Our BMW’s parked right outside.
We’ll pray to a new God from now instead,
And will steer out boats along with the tide.

Right then, we’re off, no need to look so grieved!
You wanted freedom, why aren’t you relieved?

Copyright 2007 by Claudia Bierschenk