I was born in the dive of a plane that crashed
forty-seven seconds after take-off
I was born in skids in off-road slides
in spins and somersaults and pile-ups
I was born in black tides
in gas escapes
in backfires
and ricocheting bullets
I was born on a toxic sofa
and on collapsing terraces
in the melting of fuses
and chemical fires
with a headlong satellite
a toppling crane
the derailing of trains
the subsiding of grounds
the folding of goalposts
the cracking of pipes
and on the balconies detached from the top of a skyscraper
in the cart that comes adrift in full flight from the merry-go-round
the scaffolding that collapses
the lift that plummets to earth
I came into this world through a fault in the points
a mistake in punctuation in assembly instructions
a programming error
a delayed indication
I am the heir to disasters
and the spirit of adversity has shaped me
a pure product of dark reveries
hat crowd into the brain of a town
I was born in a loss of balance
a sudden problem
I was born in the dance of faulty machines
the metallic blunders of death
forming the end of the sinister purr
of those civilisations that in their arms
squeeze all the breath out of us
like the granddad addicted to morphine or the possessive mother (38)

Translation by Roger Little