Kate Schlingemann was the RIXT poet of the month July 2020. You can read her original Dutch poems of that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘the reasons’ – is published below.
The reasons Maybe here the dikes are higher the lakes are deeper the roads are longer the fields more open the breathing space like the sky is cleaner, larger so people will keep their distance instinctively - which can come in handy when after the first wave a second one rolls in no really- maybe we could welcome new differentialities in compliance with an open-arms width of 1,5 metres more often © Kate Schlingemann Translation: Trevor M. Scarse