THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WENT Poem by Jan Glas

To everyone's surprise the fat neighbour
simply kept on talking
once she had passed away:

long quotes from old cinema newsreels;
mostly reports about the royal family
and the joyful days of May 1945.

First they thought the body is still warm,
once it has grown stiff her mouth will clench up
and go mute. But that's not the way it went.

She started singing: nursery rhymes
long forgotten by most,
little pearls of innocence and hope.

Hesitantly someone joined in. And then another,
and another one. Until everyone was singing.
They sent for an accordion.