Archive > Vol. 13 no. 2

Toon Tellegen

“My father/was immense and limitless...”

Translated from the Dutch by Judith Wilkinson

My father
was immense and limitless

it was raining
and my brothers were horses
that trotted
across the vastness of my father—
“there’s no end to you!” they cried out
and sank into the mud
                of his insatiable hunger

my mother thought about them,
my mother could think so beautifully,
                so without frills and roundaboutness,
my mother dwelt on everyone

the sun appeared,
lit up idylls and oblivion
and my father was eternity

but my mother is here, now,
                a fraction of every second.