The Night the Sauerkraut Exploded

A POEM

By R. Faricy | December 1983

The night the sauerkraut

Exploded we were all

Asleep. In dreams we heard

The awful noise of vats

Of sauerkraut that blew

Apart; the sealed tight

And under pressure vats

Exploded sauerkraut.

Awaking later what

We found was that the room

We’d stored with vats was strewn

With happy festal strings

And gay confettied bits

Of sauerkraut. The room

Was rearranged to make

Another space and time.

I think the world’s end

Will be like that: a vat

Exploding under pressure. We

Will be asleep and hear

It in our troubled dreams,

Then wake to what awaits.

The Chic and the Dead

Rocks that block the mouths of tombs

Give sermons of great gravity

On the benefits…

Parting

Let the air be taken from me;

Let no water touch my tongue.

Though my…

Envy of the Empty Air

Of what do they dream

— the white-robed monks?

while we

with half-shaped forms

from…