Zywa

Zywa MAGA

They gave us small thanks
for our pains, so now they'll get --
nothing anymore!

Europe, Asia:
too old, too crowded. It's time --
to take action now!

The bomb can do it:
create space and peace, and a --
little more respect

Australia can
remain, for the kangaroos --
and our holidays

Poem 5949
Amsterdam, 2026-03-08
Political Science (Randy Newman) - 1972
Four 5-7-5-verses about 'MAGA' (Make America Great Again)
Song "Political Science", album "Sail Away"
Collection: Human excess
Tribute to: Newman, Randy

Zywa Sobriety

I hear someone cry
but it is me
which doesn't correspond

to the life I have
the good life
so many dream of

In the mirror, I see their faces
in my worries and teary eyes
They're not threatening me

with terrifying snakes
I don't turn to stone
neither from hunger

nor from clotted blood
I can share
more

and by being sober
make it possible for them
to live a humane life too

Poem 5820
Amsterdam, 2026-01-12
Collection: Changing Times

Zywa The noisy brat

Killing him, calling him names
or telling the truth flat out
would only make matters worse

and I myself would be
hunted down, my body
destroyed and poisoned

So I give in, temporarily
With our heads held high
you and I think far enough

into the future
to persevere
our silent resistance

and step by step
in a parallel reality
reclaim our freedom

from the noisy brat
who prideful boasts
of his short straws

and preserve it
from the big boys
who are out for the booty

Poem 5805
Amsterdam, 2026-01-06
Imperialism of China, the United States, and Russia
Collection: Changing Times

Zywa Freedom or oblivion

There's a power cut
For now
And even more

hangs over us
Says the pessimist
Says the realist:

We'll see. Sabotage
a computer hack, war with
or without thunder and lightning

Set to work, repair
and hold out
against the usurper

who shortsightedly
pushes the verges
and the edges of impunity

For us, it's all
Freedom. Or nothing
Death and oblivion

Poem 5802
Amsterdam, 2026-01-05
Captain Haddock: Thunder and lightning!
Collection: Changing Times

In this faraway

land tourists wear cowboy hats:

it is their Wild West!



Toeristen dragen	Touristen tragen
cowboyhoeden: het is hier --	Cowboyhüte, denn hier ist --

hun Wilde Westen!	ihr Wilder Westen!

Poem S2299
Amsterdam, 2024-08-10
Nobody here can predict the past (Garrie van Pinxteren) - 2024
Essay "Niemand hier kan het verleden voorspellen", in the NRC of August 10th, 2024
Collection: Truder
Tribute to: Van Pinxteren, Garrie

Two neighbourhoods, just

like a dumb-bell: colonists --

and dominated.



De twee wijken, net	Wie eine Hantel,
een halter: kolonisten --	zwei Viertel: Kolonisten --

en overheersten.	und die Beherrschten.

Poem S2254
Amsterdam, 2024-07-08
Shame (Salman Rushdie) - 1983
Novel / Exposition with stories, part 1, chapter 1 Dumb waiter
The description of the town is modeled on Quetta
Collection: Shadows
Tribute to: Rushdie, Salman

Zywa Mass Migration

Feelings about that word
the collapsing world
and the loss of dignity

The consciousness
that it continues to happen
before our eyes, also here

where for a century, expelled people
find a homeland in a promise
from the distant past

By force they occupy the land
have become the majority
and built a state

while foreign soldiers
with an international mandate
marched past the citadel

and maintained order
by bloodily, bloodily suppressing
protests against the colonisation

Poem 5506
Amsterdam, 2024-04-19
Mass immigration of Jews into Palestine since 1919
Promise: the Promised Land
Marched: photo of the Scots Guards passing down Bethlehem Road below the citadel of Jerusalem in 1936
Collection: PumicePieces

Zywa Blown sand

Where? Is there room?
Are there wells
to use or to dig?
Where can I live, shall I
not be blown sand?

Where are you free
from other people's laws
that protect their order
with police actions
and specimils?

Laws that give the colonists
everything and take away everything
from those who do not yield for them
Laws that arm them
and brand me as a terrorist

Laws by which everything
can be condemned
as hostile, and which have even
erased the name King
from the Civil Registry

Poem 5491
Amsterdam, 2024-04-13
Specimil = Special military operation
2,000 years ago, Jewish zealots continued to resist Roman colonisation; this led to the diaspora, to escape the Shoah (total annihilation) of that time
Collection: The King

Still, the colonists

of the past steal, decently --

from the safe bank vaults.



De kolonisten	Die Kolonisten
van vroeger stelen netjes --	stehlen anständig weiter --

uit de bankkluizen.	aus Banktresoren.

Poem S1903
Amsterdam, 2023-09-07
A Change of tongue (Antjie Krog) - 2003
Tale, part 1 § 2
Collection: Specialities
Tribute to: Krog, Antjie

The white prison guards

lock up the black souls in white --

imaginations.



De witte cipiers	Die weiße Wärter
sluiten zwarte zielen op --	sperren schwarze Seelen ein --

in witte beelden.	in weißen Bildern.

Poem S1872
Amsterdam, 2023-08-19
Black Bodies, White Gazes: the Continuing Significance of Race (George Yancy) - 2008
Book
Collection: May the Might
Tribute to: Yancy, George

As new colonists

we steal other people's works:

we poets of fame.



Als kolonisten	Als Siedler klauen
pikken we andermans werk:	wir die Schriften anderer:

wij dichters van faam.	wir Berühmtheiten.

Poem S1865
Amsterdam, 2023-08-16
the making visible of all kinds of raids (Antjie Krog) - 2022
Poem "die sigbaarmaking van allerlei strooptogte"(collection "Plunder" ["Pillage"])
Collection: Look at me
Tribute to: Krog, Antjie

Unsolicited

they come to help, so modest --

is their haughtiness!



Ongevraagd komen	Ungefragt kommen
ze helpen, zo bescheiden --	sie zu Hilfe, bescheiden --

is hun eigendunk!	ihre Eitelkeit!?

Poem S1654
Amsterdam, 2023-02-04
Collection: Migration

My metamorphic

body dies of the glutton --

of colonisers.



Mijn wissellichaam	Mein Wechselkörper
sterft aan kanker, de veelvraat --	stirbt an Krebs, dieser Vielfraß --

van kolonisten.	von Kolonisten.

Poem S1488
Amsterdam, 2022-07-30
Collection: Metamorphic body

Zywa Amsterdam, siltland by the Big Lake

The level is rising around
the islands of silt
in the swamp, the fishermen
see their world widening
Old streambeds are also filling up
The wetlands become accessible
by rivers from the mainland

It is a sucking void
a gate to the sea, a chance
for the peat farmers and the forest people
to start trading, to build
dikes, quays, a city
with a dam
in the middle

People are flowing over
from the prosperous villages
to the impoldered land
with the new port --
not an old core that hungrily
conquers the surrounding lands
but their colony

Poem 3820
Amsterdam, 2021-05-18
AD 1100, the beginning of Amsterdam
Almere = Big Lake
Collection: New Ago

Zywa The Colonelists

The Lieutenant Colonel is a hero
With losses, it is difficult
to live, they shout too many

questions, about contempt
the moaning contempt
of people and the constitution

The winners have lost
Because they are withdrawing
from the plain where there is no food

and the Colonelists are right
they are not bad losers --
in the end they won

But victims do not forget
Their expulsion is being
cut out, cut off, cut down

alive, trapped
in delusions
of blind people believing

they have been chosen
by the One and Only
who cannot lose

Poem 3356
Amsterdam, 2021-01-12
With God on our side (Bob Dylan) - 1964
Song
Collection: Great Flow
Tribute to: Dylan, Bob

Zywa What they didn't say

High-level meeting
The king was bound to it
The reputation of the country

is attacked, and defended
with the greatest philosopher:
are the unbelievers inferior?

Should we convert them
with cannons and forced labour
and be rewarded for that?

Or are we robbing and killing
civilized people to damnation
of ourselves, an indelible debt?

The opinions remain
divided, the king is powerless
He cannot make a decision

The sages split up
Praying, they purify their souls
from what they didn't say

Poem 2403
Amsterdam, 2019-09-09
Valladolid in 1550
Meeting under the leadership of Charles V, about the atrocities against the Aztecs in Mexico
The settlers defend themselves with arguments from Aristotle (384-322), the moralists put his definition of civilization against that
In 1511 Antonio de Montesinos made the same accusations against the Spanish settlers in Hispaniola
Collection: Half The Work

Zywa The guestbook

Outside, the street is full of roles
barbed wire, you don't see them
behind the blinded windows
of formal peace

Inside everyone walks naked
in their clothes around the tower
of stacked seats on which
the Commissioner is sitting

He wiggles, the mouth full
of national interests and mutual care
The walls are decorated with names
Out of politeness I note mine

in the guestbook, sixteen pages
after a woman who has become famous
I leave my borrowed laurels
I don't want to rest on them

Poem 1734
Amsterdam, 2018-04-27
Headquarters of the British police in the Princess Mary Street, Jerusalem, May 19^th, 1948
Poem "The Tower" (Charles Simic, 1994, collection "A Wedding in Hell")
Collection: The Praised One

They give us so much,

their entire culture, but not --

a life of our own.



Ze willen ons veel	Sie geben uns viel,
geven, heel hun cultuur, maar --	ihre Kultur, aber kein --

geen eigen leven.	eigenes Leben.

Poem S0496
Amsterdam, 2017-06-28
On closer inspection (Han Voskuil) - 1963
Autobiographical novel "Bij nader inzien" - March 26th, 1952, Amsterdam
Collection: Elude
Tribute to: Voskuil, Han

Zywa Operation D

Checkpoints scare me,	settlers go ahead
All of them agree	with Operation D

I can see it, I can feel it everywhere
Save me from suffocation, save me please

Checkpoints scare me,	settlers go ahead
All of them agree	with Operation D

Are you listening, do you understand?

Dogs chasing me, I must flee
Children howl for a brawl,	they see a murderer in me

Soldiers spill our blood
Their leaders feign	patience!
It's a lie	You must leave!
There's no compassion	You must leave!
They dare me Go away,	you must leave!
shouting Get out of here,	you must leave!
It's not your country,	you must leave!
You are an enemy,	you must leave!
Where can I go? What can I do?	Tell me, tell me please!

I can shout whatever I want,	but we can't stay here anyway
since all of them agree	with Operation D

Beware, beware
There's something fishy,	danger everywhere!

They'll always blame us	You must leave!
What can we do?	You must leave!
Not keep on waiting	You must leave!
Stand up and fight	You must leave!
Break the shackles	You must leave!
Stop humiliation	You must leave!
The world is watching,	the world does see
how we are driven out	We are driven out!

I do not want to fight,	just equal rights!
All of them agree	with settling
all of them agree	with checkpoint bullying
all of them agree	with Operation D

Poem 1022
Amsterdam, 2017-02-15
Mississippi Goddam (Nina Simone) / Plan D, Israel, March 1948 - 1964
Plan D: Israel, March 1948
Song "Mississippi Goddam" (album "Nina Simone in concert")
Collection: The Praised One
Tribute to: Simone, Nina

Today's new writing:

everyone blows his culture --

around the whole world.



Het nieuwe schrijven:	Das neue Schreiben:
ieder gooit zijn beschaving --	jeder wirft seine Kultur --

de wereld over.	um die ganze Welt.

Poem S0453
Amsterdam, 2017-01-05
Sir Bumble and Friend Foe (Marten Toonder) - 1953
Comic strip #51 - "Heer Bommel en Vriend Vijand" (tiers 1730-1796), tier 1756
Collections: Puss & Lord, Whirligig Scribbler
Tribute to: Toonder, Marten

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