Never In The Netherlands Poem by Branko Čegec

then he stopped and stared at me,
knowing he was never to see my eyes again.
what a feeling of emptiness!
what a grotesque!
you look and know you will not ever again.
then the corners of the lips got chapped.
then the eyes' glint sank into the indefinite.
then the shoulders slumped helplessly...
the last gallop sidetracked.
the last moon reflection in the glazed eye.
it went out, stopped sending messages
over the satellite to the life's end and indifference.
oh, what a mockery of beauty and banality!
of heights and plains!
the plains of paraguay.
the plains of finland.
the plains of kirghizia.
the plains of thailand.
the plains of wisconsin.
the plains of the netherlands.
oh, what a geography of asymmetry and cellophane!
what a screwed-up waterfall of rituals and downy mildew!
pus and jacobean well-being runs down
and the early morning alka-game of horse-to-assmanship:
in the center!
in the zero!
only the cascading boom in front of you:
whence has death crept closer?
who composes a list of violence and megalomania?
how can you turn off the tv?


11/27/02
04/20/03
Translation: Mario Suško