I bought three old postcards with
pictures of ships, no one sends postcards
anymore, the writing fades, the people,
the ships and the water that carries
the ships. Sunlight crumbles the paper,
humidity. My ships are packed and
protected in transparent plastic, the
colors fade or were vague from the start,
it is no longer possible to determine what.
The people on the ships have eternal life,
they live as long as they sail the seas or having
run the ship ashore, powerless flapping sail in the
wind as long as it has no water under its keel.
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Three Ships
by Enno de Witt
Enno de Witt’s poetry is firmly rooted in a tradition that goes all the way back to the dawn of language and to his youth on the Dutch North Sea coast. De Witt lives in the medieval city of Deventer on the banks of the river IJssel in The Netherlands. His poetry is published in The Netherlands, the USA and the UK.
