The blog of Jusufsson

Erin is a poet by topic, give her any topic and she will write you a poem about it. The price of the poem is based on how much you like your poem. I asked Erin what the weirdest topic she ever wrote about. She answered something about puppies and Fabric patterns. I requested a poem about the Humans of Amsterdam. Humans of Amsterdam I worry for the humans—the everywhere humans, wading slowly through their pain, pleasure and suffering swimming through them freely, the eyes struggling to stay afloat. But the Amsterdam humans are strong swimmers. They are equipped against their losses. They have left behind the old mistakes, the glossy skins of newborns, the heavy rocks of the gaudy rich. A kind of ethereal wisdom. Gliding in wheels. Ready for a crisp wind. Catlike in a sharp sun. With spaciousness. Silvery and almost vegetable, like trees. But where is the dirtiness, where is the bleeding heart? I think they miss it, feel it’s lack. Hungry for tragedy. Aching to open up time, those deep jaws, and dive into its red belly, behind beaded curtains, in a room of torn wall-paper, a piano with a few teeth missing. They have lost loss itself. Not a going-somewhere people. A been somewhere people instead. Their eyes look backwards, into their minds. Wide distances. Mountains. Great heights to ponder. Now they ponder them - Erin Lierl August, 2013 Amsterdam.