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Zywa Dec 2022
Out of fashion, out-dated
there's no help for it, so let me be
unattractive, rejected
because I show myself so conspicuously
and attract attention needlessly

That's how I'm seen. I am seen
and the whispering amuses me
although nobody talks to me

And you let me wait again
until the reception calls
that you are there

So I just sit here
looking out the window
I am used to it, there is nothing to see
at the back of the hotel
and it is getting dark

You always were impatient
My make-up took too long for you
and you sat angry in the car

but if I behaved exactly
the way you had conceived
you could really be sweet
"Hotel Window" (1956, Edward Hopper)

Collection "NightWatch"
Rococo Nov 2022
It’s often I’d look unto the past,
a world of wonders not meant to last,
of joys forgotten, the die long cast,
of memories drifting and fleeing fast.

It's often I'd think of us,
moments of still quiet, mixed with triumphant fuss,
where peace would find me, where I'd be allowed to trust,
It's only then, when the hammer falls, that I'm struck by loss,

It's often that I think of dying,
that sleep may find me, without us goodbyeing,
the surplus of a lifetime, relatives crying.
But above all, that not enough time was spent trying.
I wrote this thinking about m grandparent's relatioship and how hard it must be to grow old and lose so much.
her sun spots bragged of
summers spent reckless
and her silver locks of
once box dyed glory.
her drooping skin bragged of
first kisses and a hundred men’s touch—
from her so-called “glory days.”
her plump figure bragged of
children bore and
lovers loved and
a thousand lives lived.
in this old age I deemed her ageless—
having lived more in one lifetime
than most could dream to do in four.
Zywa Oct 2022
The doctor wavers,

he sighs and looks through me, so --


I already know.
"De dokter" ("The doctor", 2008, Rutger Kopland) --- Collection "After the festivities"
Zywa Oct 2022
The old goat just stares

at me, I realise this --


is what is farewell.
"Oude geit" ("Old goat", 2008, Rutger Kopland)

Collection "Moist glow"
Tony Tweedy Aug 2022
How many days could I count that I have left to me?
Would I dare to count, knowing that finite they must be?

I know that there are far fewer than when it all began.
None the wiser am I, as to whether it was to some plan.

I find I have come to ponder the complex and the small.
To wonder if there be a purpose or just no point at all?

Why be given to the thoughts and give time to such things?
Looking for answers but deepest thoughts no answer brings.

Why give the imagining to some ethereal immortal goal,
and wrap it up so fragile in such a flimsy mortal soul?

Were there ever choices that I made as I took life's risk?
Or was it all pre-recorded on some universal Blu-ray disc?

I know the day's sun is setting, another day so newly passed,
Mortal mind taunts me, in the tally, will tomorrow be my last?
Why do we even harbour thoughts of immortality?
Zywa Mar 2022
I was young, I went

to experience grand beauty
on hands of success, now
I walk on clouds

of electric light
glitter and admiration
celebrating my retirement

in the heaven of parties
star among the stars
smiling beautiful people

pearls, botultox and gel
in semi-gray hair, tireless
in time to the brass

nobody needs to go to the toilet
we are hovering over the beds
in which despair tosses and turns

because of the days and the years
of unsuccessful lives, and we dance
the conga since we are going

nowhere
"La grande bellezza" ("The great beauty", 2013, Paolo Sorrentino)

Collection "Pending rain"
Zywa Feb 2022
Who really wants to

do something meaningful, must --


visit old people.
"An accidental man" (1971, Iris Murdoch)

Collection "Unspoken"
Zywa Nov 2021
The sky is burning, mists
push forward, the signs tilt down --
Everyone lives longer

than the world in which he grew up
He has to withdraw
or change

The watchtower is unmanned
dogs whine in the distance
This city may no longer exist

as it was, its theaters
have been declared unnecessary
The last players watch

but now it is real
they find it difficult to enjoy
the beauty of the downfall

that, since hundreds of generations
has been flattening glorious empires
to heroic stories

Who will, without self-interest
sing the praises of the good
that I have known?
"Sunset on the Railway" (1929, Edward Hopper)

#eot = end of times

Collection "NightWatch"
Zywa Oct 2021
Pull out the first, the second
and a few more
each day
      
Maybe you think
it's better to dye
and you try
      
some fancy colours and
you often look in the mirror
That's it
      
Until you get patches of emptiness
where a grey hair does not stand out
In the end you pull out the last one
Inspired by "When his hair started to grey" (2019, Fazlul Huq)

Collection "Different times"
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