Grass Roots

Come on, Gunter, a talking fish!
Elastic time lines?
Liar’s evasions.
I hear the martial beat of Oskar’s drum
in the background to your lies
of omission.

No, I don’t buy it: onion skin
palimpsest! Peel an
onion too long and
it’s gone: nothing left but tears
washing out the truth with the sand
in your eyes.

Okay then, authors tell these lies:
autobiographed
stories are still tall
tales. But I believe Oskar cracked
the mirror by singing – while you
were in it.

Footnote: Gunter Grass recently published his autobiography Peeling the Onion.
It contained the revelation that he was a member of the Waffen SS in the final days of the war.