after a haiku by Onno-Sven Tromp

 

de blauwe reiger

hapt met een scherpe snavel

zijn spiegelbeeld stuk

 

blue heron’s sharp beak

snaps at its mirror image

breaks it to pieces

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i.

narcissus heron

peck peck at your reflection

drown it in the lake

 

hapt means bites the bait

crumbs of self are all you hold

fodder for the pike

 

heron you can’t bear

to translate the dark water

pick yourself to bits

 

spiegelbeeld being

troubling the speckling surface

and wobbling in fright

 

snavel is pen nib

sharp on the page’s mirror

just make the first cut

 

a face in a lake

coalesces before breaking

if you slash it right

 

 

ii.

heron heeds no self

ignores all needless ripples

keeps on her vigil

 

one crooked vogel

watching, untranslatable,

as the lake ruffles

 

 

iii.

distant blue heron

devoted to the silence

married to nothing

 

 

‘vogel’ means bird in Dutch