after Luck by Gert Hofmann

I was just a girl from Dortmund -
I knew nothing about Thomas Mann.
I thought poetry was romantic,
but I didn't expect to have to eat it
for breakfast, lunch and tea.
Oh, it's dreadful to admit
your mother was right
about the one time in your life
you disobeyed her,
but I understand utterly now
her refusal to come to the wedding.
She could see right through
his murky green eyes -
but to me they glimmered like jewels.
Ach, I was just a secretary then,
...