Tourism
Decisive tourist
Chancellor Adolph Hitler
Visits Paris
The final tourist
President George Bush
Visits Baghdad
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Wedding Party
(Wedding Party)
Sailing down night Seine
Champagne brut and goose liver
The Eiffel Tower
Dressed in bright coloured charms
Looked like a demi monde
When the barge banked
I gave Seine the bird’s liver
Peed in the river
Studied the sliver of moon
Dreaming of ice cold lager
Paris’s night streets
September mild and at ease
Bars and bistros shut
The worthless slept in doorways
[...] Read more
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Tomorrows World
Tomorrows World
So the world is a changing greed has failed,
Now we shall all work unselfishly for, and
Together heal the world, make financial rules
Based on trust, honesty and real democracy.
We will suffer together and prosper together,
But as usual the majority will suffer while
The minority will prosper, and when time is
Right greed will be back on the agenda.
This of course may sound pessimistic, but it
Is human nature, the will to survive; if there
Are no games to play, no wars to fight
Humans will simply sink into apathy and die
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Brides
Brides.
Silk worms spewed me a suit fit for a king
Wore it at a wedding where I coveted
Another man’s bride
The worms came, ate my fine suit, they
Had found me unworthy; naked walked
through the park of autumnal leaves.
By daybreak I sat on a stone by the sea
And didn’t hear the cockerel crew, a mermaid
Beckoned for me to join her.
We swam to an island not marked by maps
In the bay I saw my old schooner called May,
De-rigged now and unable to sail
Cured of my vanity, worms spewed me
[...] Read more
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Hangover Sonnet
Hangover Sonnet
Lucifer came, brought chocolate and sweet
Drambui. My bedroom reeks of self inflicted
pain and my uncritical dog licks vomit off
the bathroom floor. I sang opera last night till
neighbours knocked on ceilings and walls,
threatened to call the police; silly fools, they
have to get up in the morning for boring work.
No beer, the dog needs a pee, but how do I get
out unseen? Endless regrets, humiliation and
shaky hands, can’t even roll my own cigarettes
anymore; this really has to stop diet coke and
well living, starting tomorrow. As for now,
hadn’t it been for the poor dog’s needs I would
not have gone out for a cold pint of lager.
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Soldier Hero
Soldier Hero
They are so proud of their son, the war hero,
and now they were given the highest accolade,
a soldier can receive, from a grateful nation.
In the great hall they met generals who said
it was an honour to meet the parents of a hero,
they had brought up a fine son, (a post mortem
medals are gentle plaster on the ulcer of grief.)
Music and pink flowers, chocolate cake and
tea; the nation’s president shed blameless and
manly tears, his lachrymose display for us to
admire; pity the hero wasn’t there. Time to go
as low paid cleaners came, ate the remains of
the cake, drank lukewarm tea, and idly spoke
about the weather and the high prices of gas.
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Vanishing Summer Light
Vanishing summer light
August is coming to end twilight
wraps itself around the olive grove
earlier than a few days before and
after five, sun sinks into the sea with
an almost unseemly haste.
The evening breeze is still mild but
carries pockets of cooling air like
a lover who is preparing to leave,
only waiting for the right time and
I sense the beginning of unsolvable
melancholic loss.
The village’s lane is dark, yet moon
is full, but doesn’t reach into my
heart that aches for the past, those
days in May when the future was
moving to never ending summers.
[...] Read more
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Filial affection
Filial Affection
I can hear her whimper in the night, I must get up
put my frogman suit on and go to her, she sits in
a cove dressed only in a sea weed jumper, there are
holes in her fishnet stocking; yes, you are right my
little daughter is a mermaid
It was July day long time ago when I met her mum,
the dolphin, a hopeless affair doomed to failure, but
did we try! The baby stayed in my swimming pool,
while her mother swam to the coast of Greenland
and feeding off the shrimps there
When my tiny girl became a teenager she went back
to her mother and they both swam to Greenland; and
I thought I should never see her again. Tired she sits
and waits for me. I must join her, in her world, now
that I sold my house with the swimming pool.
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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Dogs In Wars
The big, white dog cowered in the shadows unseen
by soldiers marching by, there had been fighting and
many corpses lay rotting in streets, hungry dog had
been eating, first reluctantly, then with abandonment,
forgotten was ancient taboo about eating human flesh...
Soldiers, who could kill their enemies brutally and
without mercy, had an irrational fear against dogs that
ate humans. The white dog knew this, any dog seen
eating man could never again be mans best friend
When the war was over it would try to be adopted by
a nice family with small children it could look after;
but for now the dog was hungry it had to finish eating
an arm that appeared to have belonged to a soldier who
had been keen on weightlifting before joining the army
and be blown to bits by a wayside bomb.
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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The roman soldier
The Roman Soldier
It was late evening, when walking along the walls of
the ancient city of Chester, I saw him, the old centurion,
he stood alone dreaming of retirement, the land and
slaves he had been promised when he joined the army.
He and his kind was hated here, in his own beloved land
the almond tree stood in ornate regalia whishing spring
welcome by strewing a carpet of flowers on its path.
He didn’t see the two terrorists sneak up on him, when
he did it was too late, and slowed by age he was knifed
repeatedly. I think they must have sensed my presence,
looking my way they stopped, jumped over the parapet
and vanished. I held the centurion’s hands, he opened
his brown eyes, a brave little smile, and said: “Guess
I shan’t see the flowering of the almond tree this year.”
poem by Jan Oskar Hansen
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