Joke van Leeuwen
 
​Translated by David Colmer

Four Ways of Waiting for Someone

1    Sitting. Thinking of lying. Hands
smoothing the tablecloth around a dish
that’s difficult and much too much for two
and not like the picture, but smells
fantastic, out through the windows,
doing its best not to collapse, like
a sucked-in tummy trying not to
bulge – inversion too is simile.


2    Walking. To the window and back,
perhaps, then back to the window again,
because sound confounds the brain with
what you hope to hear, but isn’t there.
A procession dances past, people in fancy dress
who call a scrawl of words and know each other
all by name, certain by the look of things
    that someone must be looking.


3    Standing. At an exit, entrance where
you said you would, but there are three,
and you’re not sure if this or that.
Standing still won’t get you there, but moving
might mean missing what you’d almost had.
Forgot to mention who’s to stay and who’s
to move, who sees who again and when,
and from how far.


4    Not. 




She Said

She said, we’d ordered new compassion,
we had, they were going to deliver
the new compassion on Friday.
On Friday they say, is Saturday okay.
We say yes, but only in the morning.
They say, not on, that’s not on,
the morning. My husband says, fine,
I’ll come and pick it up myself,
Saturday in the morning, okay?
Okay, they say. He gets there
Saturday, they say, no compassion.
He says, how come, it’s supposed
to be here? No, sorry, all out, come back
Friday. He says, what do you mean,
Friday, I need it right now. They say,
sorry, it’s not in yet. He says,
but you said you had it already.
They say, are we supposed to say
we haven’t, is that what you want
to hear, us saying we haven’t?




That We
​

That we first
that you start to 
and that I then
that I then also
and that you then
in passing and
in return I 
that I then also
that we
that you then also
that we
while outside
inside here we
that we later 
then later we
that we 
ohhh

​

Joke van Leeuwen (b. 1952) is a writer for both adults and children, an illustrator and a performer. In her very popular children’s books she combines text with her own illustrations to create quirky heart-warming stories. Van Leeuwen has won many prizes for her children’s books, along with several prestigious awards for her work for adults. In all her writing, she combines playful language with an incisive sensitivity to human foibles. 






‘Four Ways of Waiting for Someone’ and ‘She Said’ were first published in Ambit 198.
The originals are in Vier manieren om op iemand te wachten. Gedichten, Querido, Amsterdam, 2001, and Wuif de mussen uit. Gedichten en beelden, Querido, Amsterdam, 2006 respectively. 
The original of ‘That we’ is in Grijp de dag aan. Gedichten en beelden, Querido, Amsterdam, 2010.

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