Friday, 19 May 2017

Poem by the Flemish poet Andy Fierens

MUMMIES AND DADDIES


mummies love daddies
daddies love mummies

usually a mummy gives
her love to one daddy
(the converse also applies)
day after day
just gives love
to the same daddy
or the same mummy

it sometimes happens
that the one contains
more love
than the other is
                      equal to
we say about these others
that he/she is satiated
or quenched
the one (daddy/mummy) then has
a residue of love
and we sometimes call this
the surplus (that is jargon)

pay attention now
what follows is important

love has a limited shelf life
that means
that it can go sour
just like milk

what’s such a daddy or mummy to do
with that surplus?
let it go bad?
let it languish in some corner?

or could they
perhaps
use it to make
someone else happy?
a daddy or mummy who is lonely?

no right-minded
person can
object to that
you might think

or?

but as you all know
with adults
you never know

imagine mummy gives her surplus
to another daddy
one of those who’s lonely
then there’s a big chance that your
daddy will call your mummy a whore
that means that daddy is not happy
that he

is ventilating his dis-satis-fac-tion

or imagine daddy gives some love
to some lonely mummy or other
then it’s not unlikely that your mummy
runs through the house
screaming strange things
such as i’ll milk you dry
to the last penny
or
just wait till you’re asleep you bastard
and i’ll smear
tar on your balls

that’s terrible

it sometimes happens that a daddy gives
his surplus to another daddy

and sometimes things get patched up
between mummy and daddy
(but if daddy gives his surplus
to another daddy
usually not)

that’s how it goes with adults

later when you’ve become an adult
and married
or live together with someone
or have a living-apart-together realisation

the chance is pretty big
that you’ll notice sooner or later
that you’ve a surplus
then above all you must make
someone else happy with it

for life is short
and senseless without love

but you’ll probably have to learn
to keep your mouth clamped shut

for silence is golden
and girls you don’t want to be whores do you?
and boys you don’t want tar on your balls do you?

but such worries are for the future
just start by looking up the meaning
of the word jargon

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