if not us
will you
you say no one
has to do it
you’re right to question
where we should draw the line
between sympathy
and not-my-problem
but what if I told you
we’re all condemned
to the Earth and that
we all belong
to the same species not
to different races each
with their own unique
inequalities
no man we all live here
every damn one of us
on the same fucking planet
didn’t your mama tell you
that in times of apathy
platitudes stick
like the war zones’s
small sole prints
the boundary between sympathy
and not-my-problem
always drawn and redrawn
is at least better
than stringing the border
with lights and barbed wire
Translation: Rachel Plummer
who will save our souls
as wy it net dogge
binne jimme it dan
dû bedoelst net ien
hoecht it te dwaan
hast gelyk ast seist
wêr lizze de grinzen
fan bekroadzjen oant
it ús saken net binne
as ik no sis dat wy
allegear feroardiele
ta dizze wrâld en wy
allegear ta deselde
soarte hearre en net
ta soarten mei elk
har ryk ferskaat en
fral ûngelikensens
nee man wy sitte hjir
ferdomd ien foar ien
op deselde ierdkloat
jim mem dy net ferteld
klisjees yn sokke tiden
fan apaty klibjen bliuwe
as lytse soalprinten yn
fuortrûn oarlochsgebiet
grins fan bekroadzjen
en binne ús saken net
it altiten op ’e nij ikerjen
is teminsten noch better
as de grinzen fersierd
mei ljocht en kramtried
© Geart Tigchelaar