H.W.E. Richtod


Hot wet dentists.
The World,
A hot wet blanket
Of mucous
Over me.
Dentist out back by the pond,
Plotting destruction.
Phones don't ever work here.
The hat-stand, chaos, I walk in circles.
Building a motorway out of my sweat,
Just standing.
Bridges collapse, dentists scream louder now.
You always have to rebuild it.
And again.

(1978)

Born on the boat from England to the US, fleeing Nazi Germany in 1940, H.W.E. Richtod always felt that floating meant life, and from the age of ten refused to ever stay on land for more than a few hours. Until his death in 1993 he did not sleep one single night on land. The last few years Richtod considered land living domesticated primates (humans) to be a separate race. The above poem "Hot wet dentists" is the introduction to volume 2 of "The Sirens" (1976-81) a 3 volume epic about mankind's eventual escape to the sea (Vol 1: Ice & Bones, Vol 2: Tungsten & Escape, Vol 3: Smiling & Above).

A.F. Bytt (red). Taxonomy of Forgotten Poets of the 20th Century (volume 3). Buffalo; University of West Seneca. 1999. p. 25.