TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
We lay there in the shell crater
in this tree-stripped land where the green
of vanished leaves in poison-gas pools implored
a way up into the heavens
you and I, I and you, driven by orders
we marched naked bodies, shoving
defenceless men into anti-tank ditches, laughing
when bullets bored into backs of necks
for we had each other, a while later
ten thousand feet above cloud-hidden town
you flew, I opened the bays, releasing
the bombs to the sounds of your song
once more back on the ground we warmed each other
with beaming faces we raised our glasses
glittering eyes, you and I, I and you
the positions were covered.
© Bart FM Droog, 1998
© translation
John Irons, 2000
original title: Twentieth Century Fox, from Deze dagen,
Passage
Publishing Company, Groningen, 1998