ARCO VAN IEPEREN

 

ARCO VAN IEPEREN

 

Temporary Toy

 

You seize me up with hungry eyes,

as if I were ripe fruit on a market stall,

ready for consumption.

 

Success is written all over you – your smile

reveals your need to possess and devour,

to unpack presents you claim for yourself.

 

You caress my chest, your fingers chasing

each other to what gets me to the top

of masculinity in your eyes.

 

You think it’s empty under the stylish haircut,

that the sculpted figure excludes intelligence

and my verbal skills rival those of Conan.

 

Deafened by your ceaseless chatter, you fail

to realize you’re not alive in the world

where I live.

 

Beauty is in a weight class

of its own.

 

Encounter

 

He is sure he is being watched –

a man that looks like his father,

the same stern, smooth face,

the hint of a smile that gives

him the creeps. When the stranger

gets up, the boy twitches, ready

for the impact that usually follows.

 

He jumps to his feet and runs down

the road in a cloud of red dust,

dodging the cars and bicycles past

the brightly coloured street stalls.

 

The border is close but the story

is still the same – where is a child

to go if the streets are dangerous

and his own home isn’t safe?

 

Feline Fantasy

 

I’d rip their eyes out to stop

them from seeing me as inferior

to their nimble dexterity.

 

Take a sharp knife, cut,

simply because I could.

Pry their insides out, feast

on their organs, lapping up

their blood as a vintage wine.

Grin as my nocturnal presence

triggers their fear of the dark

corners of my mind.

 

I’d have my revenge on all

humankind, if only I had hands

and not these useless paws.

 

ARCO VAN IEPEREN

ARCO VAN IEPEREN: He was born in Gouda, the Netherlands, but has lived and worked in Poland for over two decades. As a lecturer at the State University of Applied Sciences in Elblag, he teaches general and business English, correspondence, and economics. He writes poetry in Dutch, English and Polish and has been published in a number of magazines and anthologies. He is a member of the Alternative Elblag Literary Society (which organizes the annual “Wielorzecze” literary festival), the Gdansk Poetry Club and the Society of Polish Authors.