Our assignment was to pick a poem in a foreign language we didn’t know and to write a poem saying what we think it means. I have done this twice for NaPoWriMo in the past 13 years so I’m going to say turnabout is fair play and do a reblog. My excuse is that I have literally been on the phone, internet and emails for 12 hours trying to do my taxes… dealing with banks in U.S and mexico, Charles Schwab, my investment people and my sister. Going crazy!!! A friend just pointed out I hadn’t don’t NaPoWriMo for the first time yesterday and today. Mea Culpa. I’ve been distracted. So, here are the first two stanzas of my poem “guessing” what the original poem in Dutch might have been saying:
Messages in Bottles
(those they think up as they stir their morning cups of chocolate)
—beware their dangers.
These messengers have hands that can slap you awake,
then abandon you as they return to the problems of the privileged rich.These parasites, dosed with their vitamin B, ride roughshod over their hosts.They linger in their beautiful dreams of percentages,
profit on the hunger of the poor.
They see not your skeletons when they look in the mirror.
They do not see the hearts they have broken.
Once, surrounded by the stricken, they put their fingers in their ears
and pretended they were evangelists to the poor.
Then, their illusions shattered by going door-to-door, they slammed doors shut again.
And here is the link to the rest of my poem as well as the original poem and its real translation: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2020/04/21/speaking-in-tongues-napowwrimo-2020-day-21/
Reblogged For NaPoWriMo 2023, Day 6
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Such a profound message.
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Well worth repeating.
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