Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Gerda Blees

GROUND CONTROL

Girl of bones and tendons strings together a world
of words: liquorice and chocolate in the evening
keep the rice for later, a handful of nuts
every day before going to sleep and no cheese
because her skin might break out in a rash.
She talks about parasites, vitamin B, genetically
driven fluctuations in her ratios of
fat to water. Hunger has eaten the last flesh
off her skeleton and now we can no longer
put our arms round her for she might break.

Our envelopes with the sticks, peanut-butter jars
and preaching she accepts with a smile before
flushing them straight down her favourite toilet.

Girl of bones and tendons floats away from us
and we, bound by gravity, can do no more than
call out to her from below that she can always
hoist her lost ballast back up, that it is
never too late to stop starving herself, grow a belly
for gathering courage, become a woman of
weight and let the wind be the wind.

GROUND CONTROL

GROUND CONTROL

Meisje van botten en pezen praat een wereld
aan elkaar van ’s avonds drop en chocola
de rijst voor straks bewaren, dagelijks
een handje noten voor het slapen en alleen
geen kaas vanwege mogelijke huidproblemen.
Heeft het over parasieten, vitamine B, genetisch
aangejaagde schommelingen in haar percentages
vet op water. De honger heeft het laatste vlees
van haar skelet gegeten en nu lukt het niet meer
om haar vast te pakken zonder haar te breken.

Onze enveloppen met de stokken, potten pindakaas
en preken neemt ze met een glimlach in ontvangst en
spoelt ze daarna ongeopend door haar lievelings-wc.

Meisje van botten en pezen zweeft bij ons vandaan
en wij, gebonden door de zwaartekracht, kunnen alleen
nog van beneden naar haar roepen dat ze haar verloren
ballast altijd terug omhoog mag hijsen, dat het nooit
te laat is om het hongeren te staken, een buik te kweken
om moed in te verzamelen, een vrouw van gewicht
te worden en de wind de wind te laten.
Close

GROUND CONTROL

Girl of bones and tendons strings together a world
of words: liquorice and chocolate in the evening
keep the rice for later, a handful of nuts
every day before going to sleep and no cheese
because her skin might break out in a rash.
She talks about parasites, vitamin B, genetically
driven fluctuations in her ratios of
fat to water. Hunger has eaten the last flesh
off her skeleton and now we can no longer
put our arms round her for she might break.

Our envelopes with the sticks, peanut-butter jars
and preaching she accepts with a smile before
flushing them straight down her favourite toilet.

Girl of bones and tendons floats away from us
and we, bound by gravity, can do no more than
call out to her from below that she can always
hoist her lost ballast back up, that it is
never too late to stop starving herself, grow a belly
for gathering courage, become a woman of
weight and let the wind be the wind.

GROUND CONTROL

Girl of bones and tendons strings together a world
of words: liquorice and chocolate in the evening
keep the rice for later, a handful of nuts
every day before going to sleep and no cheese
because her skin might break out in a rash.
She talks about parasites, vitamin B, genetically
driven fluctuations in her ratios of
fat to water. Hunger has eaten the last flesh
off her skeleton and now we can no longer
put our arms round her for she might break.

Our envelopes with the sticks, peanut-butter jars
and preaching she accepts with a smile before
flushing them straight down her favourite toilet.

Girl of bones and tendons floats away from us
and we, bound by gravity, can do no more than
call out to her from below that she can always
hoist her lost ballast back up, that it is
never too late to stop starving herself, grow a belly
for gathering courage, become a woman of
weight and let the wind be the wind.
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère