OUR DUTCH INDIES
The jungle's thick and greasy
foliage and sickness
the ricefields are plentiful
and the booze is cheap
you're here because
you're here for
queen and country
and mainly for the lies
which you know and realize
there is no way back
you fire your mortar
up and up and away
by the bank of a tropic river
you crave a quiet life
as man, as farmer, as builder
your shells plough a new age.
© Bart
FM Droog, 1998
© translation
Willem Groenewegen, 1997
original title: Ons Indië, from Deze dagen,
Passage
Publishing Company, Groningen, 1998