Poem

Erik Spinoy

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Here we go

Here we go
again:

my body is not
my body.

See how I stand here
bent like an outsized
praying mantis and
sicken but

however contrary
stretch out two legs
with greed and
have a feel.

My body –
taken over and run down
and plundered
like

a colony.

© Translation: 2010, Gregory Ball
Publisher: First published on PIW, , 2010

Het is zover

Het is zover
alweer:

mijn lichaam is
mijn lichaam
niet.

Zie hoe ik hier als
uitvergrote bidsprinkhaan
gebogen sta en
walg

maar hoe weerwillig ook
twee poten in
begeerte strek
en voel eraan.

Mijn lichaam –
ingepalmd en uitgewoond
gebrandschat
daarna

als kolonie.

© 2007, Erik Spinoy
From: Ik en andere gedichten
Publisher: Meulenhoff / Manteau, Amsterdam

Erik Spinoy

Erik Spinoy

(Belgium, 1960)

Erik Spinoy is a poet and professor of Dutch literature at the University of Liège. His first collection of poetry, De jagers in de sneeuw (The Hunters in the Snow, 1986), was awarded the Flemish Debut Prize; his second collection, Susette (1990), the prestigious Hugues C. Pernath Prize. Partly thanks to the latter volume, Spinoy is, together with Dirk van Bastelaere, seen as one of the major r...

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Poems of Erik Spinoy

Adolf, lucky wolf

Photo

A wolf

Take this flesh

Sometimes in a wolf’s body

It was an afternoon

Tigers, grizzlies, lynxes do it

Hot and clammy

He draws a line with piss

It was almost

Close

Here we go

Here we go
again:

my body is not
my body.

See how I stand here
bent like an outsized
praying mantis and
sicken but

however contrary
stretch out two legs
with greed and
have a feel.

My body –
taken over and run down
and plundered
like

a colony.

© 2010, Gregory Ball
From: Ik en andere gedichten
Publisher: 2010, First published on PIW, Amsterdam

Here we go

Here we go
again:

my body is not
my body.

See how I stand here
bent like an outsized
praying mantis and
sicken but

however contrary
stretch out two legs
with greed and
have a feel.

My body –
taken over and run down
and plundered
like

a colony.

© 2010, Gregory Ball
Publisher: 2010, First published on PIW,

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