Poem by the Dutch writer Hester Knibbe

Search Expedition

Tonight wandered through a city

so done in as a body with broken

ribs and a heart laid bare. Searched

for you there with buns in my pocket, searched

for a sigh, some movement in dismantled

streets and alleys. Tonight

a moment not knowing your lair

searched for you with hope in my bones.

But no matter how much I tugged at you

with my voice and my eyes, fragments of wall

kept on growing around you, cellars seemed

to have crept on you, I stayed alone

with those buns in my pocket

just calling and walking.

For this and two other Knibbe translations, go to here