FROM THE VALLEY
And I wandered a while
in the shadow
of the valley of death
with fog in my head
till the bells beckoned
upwards! upwards!
rose through mist and rain
and arrived in a room
with a sandstone ceiling
full of women full of love
and buckets of wine
and swine on the spit
and folk who laughed
and dogs that barked
barked and laughed so loudly
that bells stopped tolling
the fog lifted, I
sat her on my lap
hugged her closely for
her twinkling eyes flirted
and we kissed and we danced
and we drank and we kissed
drank for miles on high
above the city above the valley
and we slept, slept that night till noon
and I walked, walked noon till night
and I saw the city and its stone
was gone, gone, gone.
© Bart
FM Droog, 2000
© translation
Willem Groenewegen, 2001
original title: Uit de vallei, from Benzine,
Passage,
Groningen, 2000