Kulturkampf

Gott und die Staat features in the neat bookshop window frieze

Suggesting that Bonn has not lost all of its politics

With the reunifying right hand shift back to Berlin.

Because old-school Marxist analysis never said seize

The day and raise pedestrian downtown for an Adidas fix

And, here, class action isn’t in pursuit of a plasma screen.

It’s weird now, news, a café password and the world undresses

At the tourist table, and the unlikely urban tales

Of literal carpet bombing and god-driven primary

Infect the body-politic reading die local presses

With the ordinary disease, and my mobile betrayals

Alienate further the chance of serendipity.

Bauhaus Less is More, that revived spartan revolution

(requiring less Spartan credit facilities) that’s passed

Away again with counter-revolutionary

Inevitability, poses the intuition

That a simplicity can help shape how our lives are cast –

And yes, pared down are the Apple products that I carry.

Somewhere nearby there’s a Beethoven thing, claims Google

With a little luck I can walk it in eighteen minutes

From here – using GMaps – but there’s a live feed, Adele…

And Test Match Special where Anderson’s bowling is frugal;

Rolling updates on the acting commissioner’s regrets

While across the street, for all I know, Icarus just fell

Couples reconcile, plan pregnancy, consider divorce.

Maybe…their narratives beyond my basic Goethe-trained drawl

Do I gain from the comment page of no firm conclusions?

And this pause for thought – head up, screen off – now reveals the source

Of what politicians always name the wake up call:

My battery is dead, ach, total social exclusion.