Ruben van Gogh - Dutch poet, new poem

 

DISASTER MAN

You could almost wish that it was so:

merely that fragile coherence

with which the disintegration

of the world is prevented

You shuffle cautiously around in it

one false step and you’ll always be

known as disaster man

Once I crept right out to the edge

over which a waterfall plunged

into the valley, curious about what

was to be seen there: I saw

a bolt plus nut a stone sticking

out that seemed to be holding

it all in place, as if it was the hand

of God, or Bob the Builder

I came down again, elated,

as if I suddenly had seen the light

didn’t realise how I brushed cobwebs

aside, left behind a trail of

destruction, no matter how carefully

I descended