LUISA MAUREEN CHILINSKI
STRAWBERRY KITSCH
BY LUISA MAUREEN CHILINSKI
TRANSLATED BY FIONA GARRATT
stereotypical halves for dessert
on your plate
spring is in the air
​
it smells of expectations
like love after decay
​
withering flowers
bead on the mind
​
her lap a fruitful nest
his chest a thickset wall
​
A kiss – a cliché
​
strawberry potpourri
cloying maiden’s dream
sprung from belletristic roots
​
she murmurs
they slaver
​
And which lips taste of summer?
Luisa Maureen Chilinski was born in 1990 in Herne, Germany, and graduated from Hamburg University in 2021 with a master’s degree in Linguistics. Since 2011, her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and her first standalone poetry collection, Fühler fallen nicht vom Himmel, was published with Geest-Verlag in 2017.
Fiona Garratt translates from German and French into English. In 2020, she won a Stephen Spender commendation prize for poetry in translation. Fiona lives in Montpellier, France.