There is no time left,
blessed and cursed as we are.
Not under supervision.
Nor hiding under a table because the enemy drops its bombs.
Flowers crawl towards your eyes.
The violent stupidity keeps me here.
No, I don’t know who we are.
Not even as the light declines.
We walk the streets, kill mice, stand on snails-
Weightless in the great stillness.
Joop Bersee was born in the
Netherlands in 1958 in Aerdenhout. From 1989 to 1996 he lived in South Africa
where he began writing poetry in
English in 1991. His poetry has been published in South Africa, England, Wales,
Canada, Brazil, India (in a
translation),the United States and Ireland. In 2011 he was one of the winning
poets of the Dalro Award in South Africa.
Currently he works for the library of a museum in Amsterdam.
Beautiful flow to this especially in the first two stanzas which are magical to be read aloud. The last two are more intimate, a fine closing.
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