Wednesday, 10 August 2022

Esther Jansma: 'Er was eens een zij die een het had"

 

There was once a she that had an it

 

She could hit it again as she pleased.

She thinks it’s got concussion.

 

And yes, the blows left behind all sorts of things:

a whinging whistling

a humiliatingly loud shriek

and more of the noise to which it can give no answer.

 

And no, its head is not busted, it is still alive

More than that: it gets up.

 

Has it experienced the big bang?

Was this the beginning of an incarnation?

 

At any rate it now knows that time exists.

At any rate it now knows that the other one exists.

There is a before and after.

 

It sometimes thinks of blue aquarium fish.

They swim and swim an swim but

within what to them are unknowable boundaries.



To see the original poem and a discussion of, go to here.

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