In the mail are two notes from women in his recent past. One says, “I want
to see you.” The other says, “I want to kill you.”   (From “On a Page from Rilke,” Above Ground: An Anthology of Living Fiction, 2009)

“Es schwimmt eine Leiche im Landwehrkanal” — “A corpse swims in the Landwehr Canal” — went a music-hall song in the 20s, referring not specifically to Rosa [Luxemburg] but to the post-World War I poor who committed suicide out of desperation.