When the child was playing outside
without mum and dad

without anyone, by itself
with a bee and the blow-ball

of a dandelion
there were horses too

further out in the meadow
it said aloud to love:

How many we are!
Looking around in delight

with a deep sigh
without wishing anything

that was not there, the child cried out
with wide arms: Yes!

The horses pricked up their ears
and indeed, love was there:

they felt it in their hooves
they breathed it in, and out

and all their skin began to glow
Excited they looked at each other

Do you feel, do you feel it? she blew
Yes it's wonderful, he whinnied

It is awesome! they all
snorted and stamped

The foals were hopping around them
For them, it was the first time

I am a happy dog
delivering wishes in Baghdad
on the commission of the doctors

of love. They are so rich!

I taste the wishes of the notes
in my mouth, they are to whine
sometimes – then, along the way

I am a whining dog in Baghdad

With my head held high, I lie down:
here is the post! I gasp and slurp
water, I am happy

I stroke you, stroke you, you are nice
I pick you in this paradise
oh juicy velvet sugar pear
so sweet is your hair
sweet is your hair

Yes, this is love, it is concrete
here in your hands I am complete
with your embrace as finest dress
so sweet is your caress
sweet is your caress

You touch me
you charge me with a thunderbolt
you kiss me
your honey moon and marigold
just by itself
I give myself
to all your warmth and I unfold

From top to toe, you set me free
you make me beautiful, you make me be
your love is deep within, deep in me
radiating from your skin
oh sweet is your skin
sweet is your skin

My parents are away, we can go
to bed, but not even with an excuse

do I dare to go in the direction
of my room with you

or take your hand without
saying anything, because

do you want it too, and what face
should I have? That's why

a whole line of neighbours are our witnesses
that we let fly the thought of naked kisses

and lightly floating in love
With full attention

we alternately strike it off
playing badminton

in the sweet smell of summer flowers

Love is now
it does not measure with the past

Love is timeless
it knows neither profit nor loss

Love is precious
it does not wrong anyone

Love is nonviolent
it does not harm anyone

Love is free
it does not hope for later

Love is now

It's your eyes
     but even more
it's your sleeping body
     against my chest or my back
it's the very beauty
     of your desire
     when you get up
it's your smell
     that almost isn't there
     and most of all
it's your hands
     that take care of me
     in between making me
     inconspicuously feel
     under my clothes
     that it is true

Waking up together
under the soft-coloured
life in the round window

The green youth
of the world garden
unfathomable deep

in the mirror
of an old well
filled with magic

above which we, here
below, are on a soft bed
floating in happiness

Waking up together
on the Dream Mountain
above the days

Stay where you are and wait
let the girls greet
the sky and kiss the earth
for there is peace in green

our temple of love, wherever
we prefer to be
in our eyes big and round
the whole world does fit. Look

I made myself beautiful for you
again, I swept colours of grass
on my shiny skin, rubbed
a blush on heels and knees

But wait until we receive you
look at us and enjoy
that we see you, who you are
your strength, and your desire

At last in love again, wonderful
My girlfriend keeps asking
to filter out my pink

and to compare him critically
with the man of my dreams
but I leave to her the sober

and boring plainness
I prefer sweet whispers
and secret kisses

open me to spread fragrances
stretch me towards his eyes
and nestle me in the wind

of his stories, catch
life in full sail, endure
storms, cleave the waves

with double frames

Tonight we solemnly celebrate
The Beginning, the screaming

afterlife of the day, the mysterious
play of being desired
as for the first time

be seen
in new shoes, laugh with new eyes

at decency and the people
who tell what to fear and how
love should be

the gentle hand
that moulds my body, the swift one

that completes it in heaven, and the
mighty one that sows the earth in me
and always

be important
to you, holding your beauty

in my caressing hands
in nights from which I wake up in amazement
pregnant of happiness

the magic of attention
that coddles me and makes me laugh

as long as we live in the same world
and then lie silently together because
it cannot be explained

Along the Lost Cost Quay
the cargo ships are almost drowning
while we party

in Oslo and Ghent, you dance
sparks from the floor, you dance
the delicate velvet petals

up, let them float
and return to the flower
Your shirt falls open

just enough to wish
for more, for no reason
just to experience

the lovely wonder of feeling
what I feel, myself, as if
your beauty is undressing me

It's a tradition, an old superstition
the night is hot
we'll go and do it
as soon as everyone is asleep
we sneak out of the house

leaving our husbands
as to take a pee

It is not far to the rock
with the flat stripe of white
In the light of the moon
we pee indeed
with laughter

while undressing for the picture
because we want to have proof

We slide our butt warm
over the pale strip in the middle
of the Chilchliflue. Landed
in the grass we feel

with each other

for the beginning
of a baby in our belly

You are in doubt, yet
you ask me: shall we?

I imagine it already is
in the way, I think

it will be, with these and those
pros and cons and question marks

I close my eyes to feel it
and to know what I would answer

if you thén would ask me: shall we
now again just like then?

I know it by the lovely days
of firm, busty glasses
of beer and the relieving pee

the sharpening of the knives
after the slaughter and cleaning
my nails standing at the skewer

going to bed without throwing up
strong like a bull, indestructible
inside, a precise mechanism

in a firm, supple skin:
an orange man I am
a male orang-orange

somewhere nowhere in the Fields
between the castles, in a village
without statue and fire brigade

but with you, orange woman
your sun-seeking body, every new day
embraced and singed by my love

Lightning above the city
I want to go home, to you
love is blowing

through the trees
it flushes into the gutter
flies sometimes

with restrained breath
somewhere inside
where it's welcome

to be ready
in a dream
stronger than worries

and it lightens
frightens people
(sometimes makes them wise)

it protects me
brings me home
and touches me

Come against my chest: I open up
my ribs, navel, and belly. Breathe
in me, lay down on my warm heart

I embrace you, emlimb you. Disappear
in my love my love, let yourself go
in pleasure, do with me. Evaporate

with me, then we will return
for one more time. Fold yourself in
me, fold your wings my angel

then we go to sleep together
in the heaven of our sweat
Come again, my great love

If I only have love
when I meet you
I have everything

to exist
to say
and be safe

If I am love
I bear death
and the pain, my tears

flow around
the world and together
we can be happy

I promise you
not to build mountains of gold
on weak ground, I promise you
no lifelong love
out of blind lust

I promise you
no great deeds
but sincere ones
to do what I can
to be who I am

that is: your
wisdom when you're angry
defence wall around your fear
hand under your head
nest for your sorrow

I am your
understanding answer
mountain with a view
double joy
and other side

I am your
well-doing bath
together at the table
bed to sleep in
love to your toes

Skyscrapers collapse
Giant boulders are pebbles
to ice shove, castles
and temples do not stand

under anxious and angry violence
Every fear perishes
by itself, it cannot continue
connecting, and it splits itself

Laws are broken
but not the love
in which we live, free
from the chaos

taking space
for its own convenience
taking more and more world
but not our love

We hop to heaven
With us, that's the hundred, three
houses ahead, but throwing is allowed
from any lower zero

A game lasts all day
with breaks when mother comes
to treat us on a rug
beside the track, telling stories

of swimming in the inner bend
of the river and the tough boys
tapping the ships for the fastest
sitting down on her, dripping

and threatening to drown her
if she would tell - no, no
she promised, sure as she was a virgin
and she sealed it with a kiss, and

one more if she liked the boy
Dad was the sweetest: she held him
just as long, until he fell on her
turned red and did not dare to get up

The four of us cycle
to the woods, not that far
We split at the junction

Arne knows the path, he points:
further on there is an open space
let's go, there are two trees

with a kink in the trunk
The last piece we walk
and wheel the bikes

We could have sat down
at the path, but he wanted
to go here, for no reason

You see? That's all he says
He falls over backwards
and looks up all the time

Nothing will come of this - two trees
in the woods – so I just tell him
that I have to go home

Love is never a wall
covered inside
with cushions and a view
of barbed wire

Love is never a wall
around concealed wishes
a weak spot, a secret
shame or a holy duty

Love is climbing over walls
without solutions
never dislodged drunk
with faith, hope, or dreams

Love is never unbelieving
desperate or unimaginative
and other symptoms
of death

Possibility, chance, no coincidence
fate or god, but the outcome
of the self-learning program

in our heads, the decisions
lay already enclosed within us
as our future, our path

You came down the stairs
stopped in the hall
and looked at me

called unexpectedly
lovingly my name
said you

will get mail from me:
the promise that bound me
during your holiday

I looked for a secret code
in the text on your cards
and only found my longing

It was a narrow and dim place
his hand and arm brushed
skin over my skin

familiar and pleasant
as my love's:

how foreign is a foreigner
in an unguarded moment?

How many people could I
be intimate with if...

What differences turn people
into enemies, if it's not a problem
to be loved

by someone you don't know –
as if your eyes were closed

to prejudices, obstacles
and complicated circumstances

that don't stop anyone
who is young and in love

There she lies, desouled
in the arms of a man
drifted away in the delight

he passed on to me
my skin intimately
tense everywhere, focused

all my nerves, automatical
the response of the animal
of my muscles

to the animal of his lust
which devoured me, sex
is dying in a wonderful way

if I dare, not fly away
spiritually, for fear of the tiger
that is about to devour me alive

I see myself lying
in the arms of my man
Up here, I'm safe

I'm still alive

Love does not have to be
lovely all the time, they say
if you keep rough and soft
balanced
and use your imagination

We do it
we love
fantastic films
with a little horror
deep gorges, high mountains
the pleasant begging
for more more, for
a happy ending

We are nice and easy
they say, and we are
but at home, we play
like falling angels
nice and rough

Write me, you'll see
angels won't flee

pains, they endure
that is the key

Cherish our love
darling, I plea

please, you can set
both of us free

Always you'll be
Zywa for me

The kitchen and the large bed
are Mum's, Pippi and I
live throughout the house

where everything must be in its place
I'm working on it every day
just like Mum, and sweet mouse

Neil hangs on his tail
he watches and sniffs
then I pet him, he likes that



I was two, now I'm seventeen
my room is mine, and Trini
is mine, my stuff

friends, jobs, money and all
the things Mum would not approve
if she knew, are mine

all mine
even if they explode
and I can't help but cry

Me do, I said
and I burned my fingers
I was a big girl, I wanted everything
my brother was allowed to do

If I feel like it, I'll drive to Paris
on my Norton, in my leather jacket
with imputed emblems
the insulting thoughts

of frightened people
who shun me
declare me unsuited
and skip my turn

You should be ashamed, they say
but I burn with a desire
to be my own boss
and to do what I can

I'm not inferior to you
I can teach you a lot
I can beat you in everything
and that's only the beginning

People want rocks
build their lives on them
Houses that last

People want to hammer
their existence in memories
that last

People don't want to be nameless
but the name Love
will do

People want to believe
in the people
they need

People want to believe
in the power
of their dreams

Two curtain veils, swinging
wide, stride and drag
their hems around

in smaller and smaller circles
until they rotate in face of each
other and get in the grip
of the floor, their feet

wringing their legs, their waist
into a pirouette
the intimate entanglement

of a coupling couple
and their plait of repeated steps
in good times and in bad
until death ends

the resistance and each comes
free again, stretching loosely
and spreading out

The warm baths around
the eternal flame and the holy
water of the source
are a mystery
in which I am at home

My desire jumps
from man to man
spring after spring after every rest
- thirteen weeks a year
  to learn to understand everything -

To whom shall I give me
shall I give the chance
to impregnate me?
- 500 times the summer fire
  flaring up in my body -

Tired, confused, not knowing
what is going on inside me
I'm floating in the autumn bath
- it puts me together again
  into a calm woman -

But in the spring, the spring
I step forward reborn
as a fatal woman
- young again and again
  always a virgin -

In the daily dull
familiarity of each other's
presence lies the satisfaction
of caring for each other

touched and seen
intimately close
to the soft facts

which I do not wish to cover
with the frills of words
and borrowed images

Even if I want to describe it
there are limits to what I write
and will others be limited

to our attitude, our glances
the tone of our words
and the best attention we give

Hardly anyone knows us
We are unknown
like almost all people
all ordinary people

If I were to fly forward
with my intuition, beyond the green
of the strawberry fields and the rainbow
stripes of the tulips near Amsterdam

over the transience of everything
far enough for an overview
and a glimpse of the Big
Secret of love in life

would I know better
what is good for me
or do I know anyway
and do I dare to trust myself?

From now on, I am Mama
just as Mama always
will be my Mama

and as many women are
suddenly letting on that they are
But not of my child

And not with my discomforts
which they can't alleviate
with their wise prospects

I listen to my child
He teaches me baby talk
and what it means

to be Mama from now on
never just myself again
always with attention

for him, motherly love
is, throughout life, so much more
than worry and care

Those one days with you
Extraordinary ordinary days
On vacation, in a tent
our warmth

or under low rafters
and on the rug
at home, in the garden
our lips

under a large canopy
and in a kerchief
while crossing
our languor

to get something tasty
and to go to the toilet
familiar, timeless
our love

still and forever
young, in a more tender skin
a more beautiful softness
our happiness

Branches snapping under your heels
your hands in the trousers-pockets
like a man – seemingly carelessly
you stroke out for the hill
     Then you always deliberately thought
     that this time I wouldn't be there
     your princess with the flaxen hair

You made me silently cry in bed
although I only had to catch sight
of you, to change my tears for a smile
and in a twinkle
     feel happy and light
     just because you were there
     to cool down among the periwinkle
     on your hill, in the evening air

Once I took your neck in my hands
and kissed your mouth over and over again
my pointed tongue against your teeth
     My heavy fingers slowly caressed
     your white but warm cheeks
     A light glow laurelled my body
     pervaded us with shame and nameless longing

My first loves, a game:
the cool boys in the breaks
for which school was good

and in the weekends with lies
confirmed by my dear brother
evenings of fun in disco and club –

the true, my real, life
Get a berry, we're not leaving
not going to bed. The bike will wait

we stay, chatting and laughing, free
we are, because mum doesn't know
and is not worried

An evil fairy in mother
is making it hard for me:
school, pocket money and so many

rules of getting up and coming
home on time. I can be angry
too, for all fairy's sake!

Daddy thinks I'm difficult
he doesn't listen. I need glasses
and the oculist says I don't

just like mother who always wants to know
everything, because she doesn't believe me
so why should I still

tell what I'm doing? As if
I am no good yet. But the boys
do know better, so let me

have fun, by fairied, how
else can this possibly be
the best time of my life!

We were afraid
of getting caught
in the distance the train
to Grantham, here
buzzing mosquitoes and the smell
of the loo

At that time it was a building site
behind the ditch, cows were looking
in our direction, between the canteen
and material containers we lay
on a rubber plate
over the mud

I felt my fingers
in the warmth of his hair
and inside, the unknown
he was doing, it happened quite fast
twice, he said
we didn't have time to kiss

He walked away proudly
I followed him with my eyes
we did not dare
to go together
It has happened
Now I can go on

In the pond, I warm myself by the sun
like a prince to be kissed

a girl dances water lilies
around me, her mirror dress
touches me for a moment

Would her lips only bend to me
to lick the salt from my skin
and the skin from my soul

then I would fly magic butterflies
down to her toes, would I anoint
and crown her, wallow in her –

seeds around us, so light
that they don't cast shadows

Breakfast late
the table half-cleared
embrace in the kitchen

There's no need for more:
stomach to stomach, hands
around us

Slowly you take off your clothes
and mine, easily, we reach
for love that is already there

the glowing and the delay
the fulfillment that is already there
the big secret

With tender hands
you may carefully
undress and caress me

give me big kisses
heat and cold
won't harm me, I smell

fertile in your arms
open you with my skin
strip you of calluses

and stiffness, yes I do
want to be pregnant
with you, without temptation

be desired by you
every day, I want all
of you, cherish children

and grandchildren
in gardens and orchards
with a house full of rooms

Her neck, I remember
was a round ivory tower
not too short, not too long

Snow-white skin
Snow White her name
Who would not love her!

Oh, her shoulders, firm
and soft her arms and legs
round breasts and hips

straight back, perfect beauty
Magic mirror on the wall
who is beloved by all?

We all wished to know her
and hear words from her mouth
that bear witness to our existence

If she was only there
then I could hope
to love her someday