782 | WITNESSES OF A TIME

“Roads and Traces”
Stefanie Rogge, Germany

WITNESSES OF A TIME

Just as the rain
erases traces left behind,
disappears by a technical problem
or decision of higher powers
what we once entrusted
to floppy, computer, VHS or CD.

What will soon remain of us, only yellowed
that once was written on paper
by typewriter or pen—
and of those who come after us,
nothing at all?

Germain Droogenbroodt

Translation by the author and Stanley Barkan

from: “The Road of Being”
Arizona Publishing, USA, 2023