Wednesday 13 December 2017

Congratulations to Nachoem Wijnberg!

State and market

If you’re the highest representative
of the state
you walk across the market.

Where too little’s being sold
you buy what’s still lying there
before the big deals
come with a low offer
when the day’s nearly over.

Or you offer loans,
at an interest rate that’s lower
than that asked for by the banks,
so the sellers will be able to wait one day longer,
which also makes money for the state.

You start to sell
what you’ve bought from them
when the prices begin to rise
as if people expect
them to rise even further.

And when they themselves still have
what they can sell for the higher prices
you let them pay off their loans.

Don’t forget, part of your job
is keeping anxiety and compassion
separate from each other.

From: Of great importance (2015)


Heavy, light

You can give hundreds of examples
of what weight is, but you only remember
just the one of them.

When you weigh a hundred and twenty
kilos because you
wanted to run into someone
who says to you: you can’t always
be that heavy.

And then one more; a child
with each of his hands
in the hand of one of his parents
who raise him up together and let him swing
while they walk on.

You make what’s light heavy
because you’re not good at it
and don’t want to learn from others.

After that you just will be asked
about what’s heavy
and you hope that in the meantime
– you can’t say how –
you’ll get better at what’s light.

From: For you, yours (2017)


Not like a bird

Inside women are
smaller women,
sometimes larger women
and even larger women in those women.

The men
reveal to those who are unable
by pretending they are almost unable:
sitting still among shadows.

They reveal to those able to fly,
not like a bird
but like a bird being taken out
of a bird and then put back again.

From: Birds (2001)



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