Vier gedichten uit de bundel "Ander woord voor moeder" van Auke Leistra

Vier gedichten uit de bundel "Ander woord voor moeder" van Auke Leistra met animaties van Tali Farchi
The English translation
ANOTHER WORD FOR MOTHER
Hindsight
As a child,
at twilight,
I couldn’t walk
past any well-lit window
in our street
without glancing
at the room beyond
and suspecting
a deeply rooted grief
behind every face
I saw there.
Only so much later
did I begin to understand
that every window
I had cast a look in
as a child
had been nothing
but a mirror.
The cycle of life
In the house
where once this man fell
who couldn’t get up anymore,
who wasn’t found until days later
and who then died after all,
a boy has been born.
He lies in his cradle
and cries.
The line of least resistance
If I want to love her,
I picture her as dying.
It’s so much easier that way,
and you want it all the same -
she is still your mother.
Bandaid
Sometimes I dream
of a kiss on a wound
but when I wake up
it’s always a bandaid,
a beige bandaid,
with these little holes in it
like holes in a ticket window
through which the wound
can speak to me, saying:
you will never, never
be completely free
of pain.