This is a performance of two poems which I’ve rewritten into one, especially for the live broadcast performance at United Cowboys in Eindhoven. The Artistic Directors Pauline Roelants and Maarten van der Put select and present the evenings in one flow of impressions and experiences. Video by Maarten van der Put. Introduction by Pauline Roelants.
Watershed gave me this opportunity.
It was the end of what felt as a dragging decade and
it took us several clockworks to finally scratch each other’s scabs,
see each other sweat simultaneously while we both screamed:
F I N A L L Y, our flights had arrived.
I sighed.
From the moment your tiny body grew from a speck on the horizon into a giant my heart expanded.
Knowing we were breathing the same breeze took all the weary out of my toes and refilled me with long lost excitement.
I wrapped it in trash can cardboard.
The grease covered the ugly that already had been there
so actually, the disgust lied naked.
Four friendships ago you emptied yourself.
I nurtured your homeless dinners,
put bandaid to your wholesome darkness,
I pushed light back into the corners
and completed the levels you failed.
For the online event TAC 2 GO by TAC Eindhoven we made this video in which I perform a piece about my experiences with the first lockdown during this pandemic.
There once was a seed.
O, dare she be
a flower?
She could only dream of being as elegant as thee.
Continue reading “Every plant must grow”
She would stitch hearts on her denim jacket
for people to see her sleeves.
She would show the world the back of her tongue.
Because her name was Courage.
Continue reading “Her name was Courage”
I’ve got a big hole in my sweet tooth and it’s screaming for EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA.
MORE MORE MORE MORE food babies growing in my belly.
Gravity pulling my skin closer to the floor.
Complaining about getting saggy. I’ve got this body dysmorphic monster living inside of me.
Continue reading “Physical heritage”
Ik heb ontelbare kleuren door mijn vingers laten glijden.
Kleurplaten gekleurd met enkel zwart en wit.
En elke stukje natuur wat zich om mijn voeten heen bevind heb ik genegeerd.
Ik ging voor, grootse ervaringen.
Het avontuur in mijzelf vinden.
Naar de sterren en daar voorbij. Continue reading “de Intercity”
Het was zo warm.
Zo warm dat het leek alsof de pareltjes zweet die op je bovenlip rusten,
kilometers moesten afleggen tot ze het hoogste punt van je lip bereikten om dan in één keer over de rand, in je mond te glijden.
Zo warm was het.
Continue reading “Soldaatjes”
Tom and I? We’ve come a long way.
We go way back.
My oldest friend.
The only one who has known me longer than my parents have known me, is Tom.
Continue reading “Break Up”