Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer: Sonnet 'De engel en het vuur'

THE ANGEL AND THE FIRE

for Erik Odijk

A disremoving angel, helplessly

himself, like love that’s unafraid to be

afraid, would burn us for a century

at every blink, for beauty’s crushingly

so frail, though us it’s able to define 

as something nothing. Our life is a hell

of utter shallowness, where if the bell

should ring, emotion’s shown as at a sign.

The multi-tasking rush-hour beast with slick

conclusions, thumbs all swollen douses fire.

All that’s of value, he finds slow and eerie.

The fire that flares in semi-colons, quick

to bridge abysses, is a pacifier.

The angel is no answer but a query.