Sunday, 24 April 2022

Cees Noteboom: 'Vos'


 

Fox

 

It was from the low road he first saw the fox,

black and alone in a field of snow.

 

Behind, before the second field, a bank

of bushes, three trees, blown by the wind,

 

secret signs in the afternoon light,

a frozen moment, a now written down.

 

The fox had stood still and looked and he looked

back, saw that the fox saw him, and saw

 

the white marking under its head, its brush

like a prolongation in the white snow

 

Everything was empty, he too, the fox made

a decision and raced off, a long streak

 

against the white, a tale of speed

and fear, its paws now another

 

foursome, Hebrew letters on a blank sheet,

beginnings of a script that remains on

 

the photo, a winter afternoon tale

man and fox, light and man and beast,

 

there is only this.

Second, stillness, fox,

 

only this

poem.


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