Kira Wuck

Translated by Michele Hutchison

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If it rains on a Sunday
it rains differently at our house than anywhere else
the air is drier and the cat won’t let you stroke it


We used to have a peephole in the fence
behind it was where things happened


From the back garden you can see the dirty dishes piling up
which is the distance between lovers
when they don’t touch


Intimacy is finding out that you are staring
at the same spot as the other person
like at my parents
whitewashing the walls for the hundredth time




*


Finnish girls rarely say hello
but aren’t arrogant or shy
you only need a chisel to get a little closer
they order their own beer
travel the world 
while their husbands wait at home
if they’re angry they send you a rotten fish 


They hibernate on a bench under the snow
When spring comes they get drunk 
to scratch the layer of civilization from their skin
they hang around in bus shelters 
and sometimes naked in lakes


In the night bus they sink their teeth into the rubber armrests
If they haven’t already fallen asleep




*


On the last day someone comes to play chess
You ask who put a dead horse in your bed
The man opposite you doesn’t know whether to let you win


In the kitchen we throw buckets of water 
until it’s up to our ankles
Your wet hair sticks to your neck, your head to our hands
When you do the shopping you always drink a can of coke 
supermarkets make you thirsty
satisfied you put the can back on the shelf


The day you left we ate spaghetti
We sat on the balcony, plates on our laps
heat brewed, the air felt empty 
I climbed into a strange bed
pulled up my knees and slept all summer. 

​

Kira Wuck (b. 1978) is a poet and a short story writer and the winner of the Dutch national championship poetry slam. The daughter of an Indonesian father and a Finnish mother, she grew up in Amsterdam but is attracted to the absurdism and melancholy of the far north. An affinity that is reflected in the title of her highly-praised, prize-winning debut collection Finse meisjes (‘Finnish Girls’).






The originals are in Finse meisjes, Podium, Amsterdam, 2012.

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