recently fell (I) fell Poem by Tonnus Oosterhoff

recently fell (I) fell
a worn board gave way
(I) landed well but wrongly
rightly so, but well
nothing broken yet
broke nothing

then all lost children
suddenly flowed underneath,
I became a sack of stooped, skinny children
I should not have fallen

-

all lost children
suddenly flowed underneath
and I became a sack of stooped, shivering boys
I should not have fallen

we passed through the fields
sometimes one did drown yet
more often not, not us

-

we passed through the meadows
where one did drown, sometimes
yet more often not, not us

a cloud as a floe
in the hard wind
above the river
I go tonight
clouds as floes
in the hard wind
above the river
attack in flight

on the water floated a gauge
in the waves drifted an anchor

-

ice floes in the hard wind
on the river. the hard wind on the river
I go tonight
the clouds pile up
against the moon


recently fell (I) fell
a worn board gave way
(I) landed well but wrongly
rightly so, but well
nothing broken yet

broke nothing

-

play school the lower back
I used to be a stooped boy
with my back against the wall

-

recently fell (I) fell
a worn board gave way
(I) landed well but wrongly
rightly so, but well
nothing broken yet

we passed through the fields
sometimes one did drown, yet
more often not, not us

kill the curtain

-

head became heavy
after the fall I could get up right away
broke nothing
_

afer the fall I could not get up
broke nothing

-

it could get up right away after the fall

the just fallen snow could get up right away
the just shot lion could get up right away
the woman in childbirth, café lioness, up and away

-

head becomes so heavy
head becomes so heavy
brain foaming brown
pig seeks redress,

-

my head, I should have at least
with my arm, ah…

but on the water drifted an anchor,
in the waves drifted a gauge

-

I grabbed (at) something white:
the ice piled up a rabbit's head

it came to me I had gone down to turn away
the world from the underworld

the order

the severe winter sun, a severe case of

-

it's raining upwards, it's snowing in the country
we wish each other a happy old year

-

we trudged through the fields
we flew as we went, carts to our knuckles,
killing all curtains in
passing. clouds as floes

deep beneath us floated gauges



not boards but spell-bound children, punished
for allowing one of their circle to drown.
they had laughed it. they had done it.

the spell broke (the ice) ?