gedicht van de maand

juli 2007

DEATH BY WATER

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls and the deap sea swell
And the profit and loss.

A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
he passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward
Consider Phlebas who was once handsome and tall as
you.

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)