Der Scherebleistift (Death and the Mother)
Keep away from me monster!
An abomination you are for snatching away joy
For smudging the colours away from the parchment, leaving ashes and dust
And stay away from my son!
For he lies in the poppy fields and open graves
And never had the chance to tell tales of gunpowder and blue skies to progeny
Or to play cards and sing carols across the other side of the raped paddock
But performed his final order gracefully but left me to wander the wilderness
In pain and in heartache.
O death, your sting is bitter and the filtered voice has scared my ears!
You have poisoned the vessel of knowledge and you have left me to decay.
You have unleashed the cerberian canines and flock to Wagnerian round tables
Where the malevolent knights unsheathe steel blades and rustic swords of blood rust and bloodstains.
You have darkened everything from the radio waves to the skies to the studio where I reside.
Please dear sir, just let me hold my son close to my breast for just a little while longer.
Date of First Draft: 28 April 2000
Information: This poem was made for the Art Notebook assignment for English 11 Honors and was directly inspired by Käthe Kollwitz's lithograph (the title is the subtitle of this poem). The main title is a nonsense word, literally translated as "The Scissor Pencil."