SAVAGE CITY
Sprout the newest
insult – hype.
Burn leftovers.
Transmutation
that scorns.

POMPEII AAN DE MAAS
Brood en spelen,
voetbal en
bier.
Gefilterd vermaak
tussen snelbeton.
Hoe imposant de mens
ook denkt te kunnen
bouwen,
schaduwen werpen
zijn kille zakelijkheid
ver vooruit.
Hét gelijk -
staat in de schijnwerper,
een ander
staat uit.
Hol gejuich en
geregisseerd gewuif -
de keizer past
zijn vluchtige kleren.
Een passieve cynische
werkelijkheid.

VENLOER DUFT
Entlang den
Narbenstrich.
Wo Rendite
auf Kummer sich
lohnt.
Puppe -
dein Zuhälter
liebt dich.

GRANDEUR IN MINEUR
De hongerige stad
zwevend boven maquettes
vol zelfgenoegzaamheid.
In bubbels weerklinken
haar dronken visies
van onaantastbaarheid.
Geprojecteerde schaalgrootte
verdringend -
haar grauwe, alledaagse
werkelijkheid.
Hollenderwijs, struikelend over
haar eigen onbeschaamde
nalatigheid.
De gecultiveerde
monotone vertrutting
ruimschoots voorbij.

FLECKFIEBERGARTEN
Wo der Kummer
wächst.
Verwaltet -
von der Stadt.

the pic above shows one of several construction sites in and around the center of town. this has been going on for years now, with postponing plans numerous times, clerical errors, financial fuck ups etcetera. you know the drill. plan is to turn this one into a grand boulevard with a parking underneath – as if there wasn’t enough traffic here already.
but, with one or two sites not even nearly finished, they already started digging a third and fourth. the bigger and wilder the plans, the more money got involved and the more enthusiast they became. something contagious was and still is running around the entire political spectrum, with the Social Democrats and the Greens up front. at some point one stops wondering. i’m sure, though, in the end it’ll look great… for the time being.
i love big construction sites by the way, as long as it’s not visible what they’ll turn into.
pardon me, but i’ll avoid translating my own poems; in my opinion they’re almost always horrible and can’t exactly grasp the intentional structure of words, replace their meaning and pronunciation, especially when done in German. the words wouldn’t function in English or Dutch because the - my – mind associates them with different things. i’ll give you the title of this one though: typhoidfevergarden.
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