At Home

Father was eating partridge and Mother was out
and I and Joris were talking about murders
and getaways and on what trains
when the sun rolled into our attic
and lay there gleaming in the hay.
Father swore and said: God sees me.
Joris made his getaway
and I went on playing with the trains
which ran on electricity across the floor
between posts.

Hugo Claus
Translated from the Dutch by John Irons
Greetings: Selected Poems
Harcourt, Inc.

Copyright © 2004 by Hugo Claus
English translation copyright © 2005 by John Irons All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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