THE NUMBER DOGGIE (poem) - Jan Glas - Netherlands

HET GETAL HONDJE

Veur Hans

Vanoet nait Hier en nait Doar dien kitsch-
ansichtkoarten oet Wenstlaand.

Achterop laip n dudelk handschrift
steevast vast ien hazzenmist.

Wel perbaaiert din ook ien dit leven
aargens n vinger achter te kriegen.

Poëzie
haar ien dien geval meschain helpen kind,
allain, doe hiels nait van gedichten zeestoe

en laits mie n krantefoto van
zomor n runnend hondje zain.

Dat ik die nooit meer zain zal,
doar laip t op oet.

Gemis
is te meten, dat onderzuik heb ik nou
zo goud as ofrond.
Der monnen allain nog andere getallen kommen.

Bieveurbeeld het getal hondje dat
n aanloop nimt om gras te worden.

THE NUMBER DOGGIE

For Hans

From neither here nor there your trashy
postcards from Nostalgialand.

On the reverse side clear handwriting got
invariably lost in a brain-fog.

That’s what happens in this life when
you try to understand things.

Poetry
might in your case have been able to help,
only, you didn’t like poetry you said

and just like that showed me a
newspaper photo of a running doggie.

That I would never see you again
was the final upshot of it.

Loss
is measurable, that investigation I have now
more or less completed.
Just different data are required.

For example the number doggie
taking a run-up to becoming grass.