Thursday, 10 September 2015

Poem 86 from '100 Dutch-Language Poems', due out in a few days' time

No revolver

For Bert Schierbeek

It’s raining, the last of the flowers are
letting go, but people are blooming.

Hölderlin briefly reads clearly
then clouds over: curtains are shut

during the daytime. Doors close
without a keyhole. It’s raining hard.

And yet: humans believe that the world is
getting better, women draw a lipstick

and no revolver. Women bathe children,
but the sky turns their water black.

And yet: time unreels to give people
extra time and now Hölderlin will chuckle a bit

about the last pears. Although he’s mistaken:
it is his madness dancing to ashes’ tune.

It’s raining, the last flowers are
strewing children on the old earth.

And Hölderlin pores over his poem,
scratches some words, drinks and prays.


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