Ester Naomi Perquin (The Netherlands)

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(Utrecht, 1980) grew up in the province of Zeeland but has been living in Rotterdam for the past fifteen years. She followed creative writing classes in Amsterdam and has worked as a prison guard to be able to finance her studies. Her debut volume, Servetten halfstok (Napkins At Half Mast), was published in 2007 at Van Oorschot Publishing House. It was followed in 2009 by the collection Namens de ander (0n behalf of The Other). Perquin wrote columns and poetry for numerous newspapers and magazines, and is a host for the VPRO radioshow Nooit Meer Slapen (Never Sleep Again) every Friday on Radio 1. In 2011 and 2012 she was appointed the City Poet of Rotterdam. She has received a number of prizes for her work, among which the Anna Blaman prize, the Lucy B. and C.W. van der Hoogt prize and the J.C. Bloem prize. Her latest volume, Celinspecties (Celinspections), was published in 2012 and was awarded the prestigious VSB Poetry Prize for best collection of the year.

 

Legal Activities 1 & 2
 
1
Wake them up at the start of the night
and ask for dreams.
If they say they haven’t had any yet
because you’ve woken them up: slap.
If they start to cry, stroke their hair
until they think of their mothers. Then say
their mothers aren’t coming anymore.
If they rest their heads on their arms,
keep quiet for a long time. When they fall asleep,
wake them up and ask for dreams.
If they tell you their dreams, listen and explain
that such things do not exist. Then go to the order
of the day. Then start again from the beginning.
2
Put them in the exercise yard and make
the sound of a gunshot. Practise until
you can hit a slow pigeon in flight
just over their heads, and have them
bury the pigeon.
Or turn one over onto his back and draw an outline
on the mattress with a marker and make him stand up to look at himself.
Ask them if the outline reminds them of anyone.
Ask them who.
 
Translated by David Colmer