Poetry International Poetry International
Gedicht

Pat Boran

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

Sick in New York, in Chinatown,
I go to a Ukranian doc
who gives me a shot in the arm and says
“Straight to bed for you, my friend.” So I book

into the nearest run-down hotel,
no curtains in the windows, stains
like maps on the mattress, a hanger stuck
in the top of the TV, half cross, half weathervane.

For the first few hours I think I’m going to die.
Bathed in sweat, I lie on my back
flicking between grainy newsreels, kung-fu
soap operas and some kind of chat

show where everyone is shouting all the time.
And then I dream, neither awake nor asleep:
a tiny Chinese man is calling out my name
from the bottom of a stairs, and up

where I am stretched out, a kid whose hands
are covered in food, in blood, leans over me until
his face is a mirror to mine, and smiles.
“Island?” he says. “Never heard of it.”
Pat Boran

Pat Boran

(Ierland, 1963)

Landen

Ontdek andere dichters en gedichten uit Ierland

Gedichten Dichters

Talen

Ontdek andere dichters en gedichten in het Engels

Gedichten Dichters
Close

The Melting Pot

Sick in New York, in Chinatown,
I go to a Ukranian doc
who gives me a shot in the arm and says
“Straight to bed for you, my friend.” So I book

into the nearest run-down hotel,
no curtains in the windows, stains
like maps on the mattress, a hanger stuck
in the top of the TV, half cross, half weathervane.

For the first few hours I think I’m going to die.
Bathed in sweat, I lie on my back
flicking between grainy newsreels, kung-fu
soap operas and some kind of chat

show where everyone is shouting all the time.
And then I dream, neither awake nor asleep:
a tiny Chinese man is calling out my name
from the bottom of a stairs, and up

where I am stretched out, a kid whose hands
are covered in food, in blood, leans over me until
his face is a mirror to mine, and smiles.
“Island?” he says. “Never heard of it.”

The Melting Pot

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère