I bump into everyone here, devils from different Poem by Cees Nooteboom

7

I bump into everyone here, devils from different
lives, animals from a forgotten coat of arms,
women in the form of lions, unicorns,
masked pigs, I fall out of my painting

and look back at the painter, he still has
to finish my hand, an ant is walking through the paint,
the pianist in the bunker is playing a song
from the war. This is how it all comes back to me,

the dead pilot in the tree, the voice of my
father who could eat on the hoof, I hear his
sound but no words, I know, he wants
to go to his grave but I can't help him.

He hasn't got one.