The Poetry Week is the celebration of poetry in Flanders and the Netherlands, taking place from 30 January to 5 February. In 2020, the theme is ‘The future is now’. Because we believe that children are the future, every day we present a Dutch children’s poem in English translation. Today: Droom (Dream) by Lidy Peters.
Dream
In a black blanket I dream myself
a growling monster in my ear
tentacles that creep across my skin
spouting slurping, sucking water
I grow heavier than the walls
from which peer red eyeballs
I look sobbing for my voice
no longer know where I am
In a black blanket I dream myself
in a sweat, paralysed from head to toe
gliding from dream to wake-up land
where I shrink and am swallowed up
by churning tornado waves
lifted up to the universe
I float timeless till I fall
into the night which, warm, shocks my head
the monster’s peed right in the bed
© Koen Fossey