Terra Incognita

Terra Incognita

This land did not call my name but roared it: Umeu, child

of sirius, enter me! Defloration; I kissed the earth and when

I looked up I saw a circus of purple arabian cloth. German shepherds

negotiated with thoroughbreds about the price of a thai madonna;

their turbans as light bulbs in the sun. There were Samnites,

Athenians, Dutch bankers, wolfmen, Mongols and Lebanese.

But of the nomads I could no longer perceive a trace between

the crisscross of exotic hands and footsteps. The snapping of

sounds upon dry asphalt. Around me the world lay as a whore

with divine curves. Bounty of colours. I have been raised in

a duskworld, a land filled with grey light; Everything is ashen,

even the depth in the eyes of the virgin with hellenic breasts.

But here I slept in a bowl of fingers underneath gumtrees

wearing palettes. The night was a poet, a thousand dark years

beyond its time; as if painted by Dali. The tranquil buzz from

all kinds of animals, with unfamiliar names. I had returned home

to a land in which the dreams spoke to me. The unknown shore.

Umeu Bartelds (22) is campusdichter en student Filosofie. Iedere maand publiceert hij een gedicht op EM.online. Hij schrijft beeldende gedichten, het liefst in het Nederlands, maar dit keer in het Engels. Kijk hier voor zijn andere gedichten.