Miriam Van hee (Belgium)

​dream
 
I saw him after he had failed
the exam, he was waiting in line
for food, I said that it must be
his last season in this city now
and he answered, as if he hadn’t
thought about that yet, yes, and he cried,
briefly, then a plate of food
was put before him, it wasn’t my turn yet
but I had to watch how
a large, dried piece of fish
was cut into long strips
right down to the white, pointed bone
 
it was no different from what I already knew
the unbridled and the unrhymed, the fish
and the flesh, the conversation with no end

Translated from the Dutch by Judith Wilkinson

source text: Miriam Van hee, Buitenland, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 2007