Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Alexis de Roode

Duty

I was sitting on a chair in the office today
and fighting against climate change
when someone said on Facebook:
The earth is now the coldest it’s been
in the past three hundred million years.
I suddenly realized that there have been animals
for five hundred million years already
and that I still have some dozens of years to go.

I felt like getting up from my chair
and walking off into the polder,
to look at a leaf of grass
as I had never looked at one before.
But I stayed seated,
did my job.

Plicht

Plicht

Ik zat vandaag op kantoor op een stoel
en vocht tegen de klimaatverandering
toen iemand op Facebook zei:
De aarde is nu het koudst
van de afgelopen driehonderd miljoen jaar.
Ineens besefte ik dat de dieren
al vijfhonderd miljoen jaar bestaan
en dat ik nog enkele tientallen jaren te gaan heb.

Ik wilde opstaan van mijn stoel
en de polder in lopen,
om een grasspriet te bekijken
zoals ik er nog nooit een bekeken had.
Maar ik bleef zitten,
deed mijn plicht.
Close

Duty

I was sitting on a chair in the office today
and fighting against climate change
when someone said on Facebook:
The earth is now the coldest it’s been
in the past three hundred million years.
I suddenly realized that there have been animals
for five hundred million years already
and that I still have some dozens of years to go.

I felt like getting up from my chair
and walking off into the polder,
to look at a leaf of grass
as I had never looked at one before.
But I stayed seated,
did my job.

Duty

I was sitting on a chair in the office today
and fighting against climate change
when someone said on Facebook:
The earth is now the coldest it’s been
in the past three hundred million years.
I suddenly realized that there have been animals
for five hundred million years already
and that I still have some dozens of years to go.

I felt like getting up from my chair
and walking off into the polder,
to look at a leaf of grass
as I had never looked at one before.
But I stayed seated,
did my job.
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère