Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Ruth Lasters

SHARKS

I love you with the belt and braces of sharks' teeth
both one after another and one behind the other, in series, even though a single
razor-sharp row might often have sufficed. 

I can't cuddle you in the singular now. Every time, I hug both
the already-elderly man and the young boy, again
six and eight and ten. A bedroom: a retrospective exhibition 

of all of each other's guises where you are both attendants
mostly eyes closed. And then that I, in broad daylight,
sometimes shut mine, screw them up tight 

for fear that words, the most versatile of things,
at some point, abruptly and most cruelly – just as, sometimes, in mid-ocean,
they cut the fins off sharks – 

will fail me, due to a hereditary scary thing
or else as punishment for ever-inadequate loving
on paper. Ah, love poems, would they even exist 

if one suffered far more impressive, demonstrative bruises
from violently crashing time and again into that one over
the word count limit.

HAAIEN

HAAIEN

Ik heb je lief met het én én van haaientanden
die én naast én achter elkaar in rijen staan, al had een enkele
vlijmscherpe reeks misschien ook wel vaak volstaan. 

Ik kan je niet omarmen enkelvoudig nu. Telkens druk ik ook
de reeds stokoude man tegen me aan, plus het jongetje van opnieuw
zes én acht én tien. Een slaapkamer: een overzichtstentoonstelling 

van al elkaars gedaantes waar je suppoost bent allebei
met ogen veelal dicht. En ook dat ik, bij klaarlichte dag,
de mijne wel eens sluit, dichtpers 

uit vrees dat woorden, het meest wendbare van dingen,
me ooit abrupt en allerwreedst – zoals men soms op volle oceaan
haaien ontvint – 

zullen ontbreken door een erfelijk eng iets
en anders wel voor straf voor grenzeloos ontoereikend beminnen
op papier. Ach, liefdesgedichten, zouden ze überhaupt wel bestaan 

als men veel indrukwekkendere, toonbare bloeduitstortingen opliep
door keer op keer knalhard te botsen voor die ene tegen
de formuleringslimiet.

Close

SHARKS

I love you with the belt and braces of sharks' teeth
both one after another and one behind the other, in series, even though a single
razor-sharp row might often have sufficed. 

I can't cuddle you in the singular now. Every time, I hug both
the already-elderly man and the young boy, again
six and eight and ten. A bedroom: a retrospective exhibition 

of all of each other's guises where you are both attendants
mostly eyes closed. And then that I, in broad daylight,
sometimes shut mine, screw them up tight 

for fear that words, the most versatile of things,
at some point, abruptly and most cruelly – just as, sometimes, in mid-ocean,
they cut the fins off sharks – 

will fail me, due to a hereditary scary thing
or else as punishment for ever-inadequate loving
on paper. Ah, love poems, would they even exist 

if one suffered far more impressive, demonstrative bruises
from violently crashing time and again into that one over
the word count limit.

SHARKS

I love you with the belt and braces of sharks' teeth
both one after another and one behind the other, in series, even though a single
razor-sharp row might often have sufficed. 

I can't cuddle you in the singular now. Every time, I hug both
the already-elderly man and the young boy, again
six and eight and ten. A bedroom: a retrospective exhibition 

of all of each other's guises where you are both attendants
mostly eyes closed. And then that I, in broad daylight,
sometimes shut mine, screw them up tight 

for fear that words, the most versatile of things,
at some point, abruptly and most cruelly – just as, sometimes, in mid-ocean,
they cut the fins off sharks – 

will fail me, due to a hereditary scary thing
or else as punishment for ever-inadequate loving
on paper. Ah, love poems, would they even exist 

if one suffered far more impressive, demonstrative bruises
from violently crashing time and again into that one over
the word count limit.

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