Writer and a poet Manfred Chobot was born 1947 in Vienna. He is the Member of the Austrian Writers league IG Autorinnen Autoren (member of the board), member of the Austrian authors association Grazer Autoren- versammlung (member of the board), member of the international authors association Kogge. The poet also is a co-founder of the First Vienna Theatre of reading performances.
Apart from being a writer, Chobot is Editor of the series of books Lyrik aus Österreich (Poetry from Austria), Editor staff of the literary magazine Podium. He has held Exhibitions of “BildGedichte” (PicturePoems, photos) and set approximately 50 radio plays for various broadcasting stations.
Manfred Chobot is the author of: twelve volumes of Poetry in German; twenty-six volumes of Prose; two nov- els, two volumes of photo books, and two books for children. His poetry volumes have also been published in English, French, Spanish, Slovak, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Georgian, and Bangla. Prose volumes in Ukrainian, and Polish.
ODE TO FEAR
i am afraid of slipping
off the list of wealthiest men
getting captured near somalia
crashing in a plane
while my stocks are falling
getting kidnapped and fried
in the desert by insurgents
being forced to exchange my porsche
for a compact mercedes
not finding a parking place in the traffic jam getting trapped without petrol
on the highway in an earthquake
being wiretapped in my single cell
and sentenced to pay a bail of
a hundred million euros
tripping with a day pass and
getting crushed by a paternoster lift
having to meet berlusconi
sitting with angelika m. and nicolas s.
at one table and eating oysters
getting idolized live and lyrically
in front of a sell-out crowd
by michael jackson
getting into a banknote printing press accidentally landing as an extraterrestrial on planet earth not knowing how to navigate to dump securities
on the stock market
and getting reborn as
an austrian with an american passport
Translated by Karoline Ruhdorfer