– we set our nets and hooks
in filmy stillwater –
we fetched them again in the morning –
then the water could be
like sloping green walls,
falling down into dust –
– some nights we got a good catch –
then the nets looked
like the stomachs of pregnant women –
like large, glossy chestnuts on a thread
the hooks with fat dangling fish crept
slowly out of the water,
which then was still and filmy –
– other nights we forsook the nets –
– we set our nets and hooks
in the evening –
in the night we went with moist eyes
into town –
we were newly washed and in blue clothes –
there went the young women
with burning red cheeks
like ripe fruits –
– in the morning
there were places outside of town,
where the grass looked,
as if large animals had fought there
that night –
– other nights we forsook the nets –