Venice
Albert Hagenaars
Night.
Walking the waterways,
aimlessly, to the Darsena Grande.
In the mist,
also the one later
at home, no sound
comes through of words being shifted,
for,
counteracting,
Colleoni dripping
and threatening around
every corner of longing and lust,
a windless
attempt, a regatta
with myself motionless,
motion less in the empty basin of war.
Female image:
a muddy bandage
around weak sentences of refusal.
From: Curfew, published by WEL in 2000.
Dutch text by Albert Hagenaars
English translation by Catherine East.
