(for Walter Benjamin)
Hansel and Gretel are alive and well
And they’re living in Berlin
She is a cocktail waitress
He had a part in a Fassbinder film
And they sit around at night now
Drinking schnapps and gin
And she says: Hansel, you’re really bringing me down
And he says: Gretel, yu can really be a bitch
He says: I’ve wated my life on our stupid legend
When my one and only love
Was the wicked witch.
She said: What is history?
And he said: History is an angel
Being blown backwards into the future
He said: History is a pile of debris
And the angel wants to go back and fix things
To repair the things that have been broken
But there is a storm blowing from Paradise
And the storm keeps blowing the angel
Backwards into the future
And this storm, this storm
Is called
Progress
——